Belgium captain Eden Hazard was disappointed to see his team bow out of European Championship after a 1-3 defeat at the hands of Wales, but insisted his nation’s golden generation of footballers still have huge winning quality.
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While Welsh players like Gareth Bale, Aaron Ramsey were playing really fantastic football, Romelu Lukaku squandered all the Belgium’s chances.
Cristiano Ronaldo has had a mixed tournament so far, but Wales will be wary of the Portugal superstar’s ability to change the game nearly single-handedly.
“It wasn’t as if it was smash, bang, wallop and we just nicked the result, because we didn’t”, Coleman added.
In an exhilarating game in northern France, Wales went one better than their 1958 predecessors who had reached the last eight of the World Cup in 1958 World Cup in Sweden.
“It’s something we’ve worked so hard for in six, seven, eight years, being ranked where we were to where we are now, it’s a credit to everybody involved and long may it continue”.
Wales came from behind to beat Belgium 3-1 in Lille and earn a clash against Portugal – Wales’ first major tournament semi-final.
He said: “We had a sound check (for their concert) last night, we finished the sound check and then went upstairs to the bar”. “They had some wonderful players”.
Davies’ yellow card was particularly hurtful as it would rule him out of a potential semi-final, but there was more pain for Wales after Wayne Hennessey had foiled Yannick Carrasco and Neil Taylor had blocked Meunier’s follow-up on the line. It’s just incredible – but we knew we had it in us.
The win made history, booking the Dragons into the semi finals for the first time in its history.
As Wales achieved their best ever feat in worldwide football, fans around the world flooded twitter with several congratulatory tweets.
“It’s just incredible”, said Bale, who scored the victor when the sides met in qualifying in Cardiff last summer.
Here’s how #WAL swept #BEL aside and set up a #EURO2016 semi-final v #POR… “We feel we have got something to offer”. “We executed the plan to perfection and definitely deserved the victory”. We covered every blade of grass.
“It is about this team showing what we are capable of doing and getting to the final”. We were very assured.
“We knew they are a very good side with a lot of talented individuals but we showed what a true team we are”.
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Giggs, who played 64 times for his country, analysed Wales’ win on ITV’s highlights programme and said: “I’m so proud”.
