Hazard then scored his superb goal in the 80th minute before Yannick Carrasco fired in the fourth in stoppage time.
Advertisement
“Wales are a tough side to play against”, Hazard told reporters, after scoring his team’s third during a man-of-the-match performance in Toulouse.
Wales also held Belgium twice in Brussels and won 1-0 in Cardiff just over a year ago when Gareth Bale’s victor all but booked their place at the European Championship finals. They were dominant throughout at Stadium de Toulouse after Toby Alderweireld headed them into a 10th minute lead.
Two minutes after setting up Michy Batshuayi’s goal in the 78th minute, he scored a spectacular solo effort of his own, twisting his way past three Hungary defenders before curling a shot into the bottom corner and racing over to celebrate with the whole bench.
By this point, Hungary had given up the fight and were handed a knockout blow when Atletico Madrid’s Carrasco, on as a substitute, slammed in from a Radja Nainggolan through ball.
But Hungary, summoning the spirit of their dramatic 3-3 draw with Portugal, fought back and anxious Belgium for a spell.
It was De Bruyne’s 11th important contribution-goal or assist-in his last 12 internationals, and represented another decisive contribution for one of theEuro’s leading lights.
Belgian coach Marc Wilmots said he told Hazard to do the talking with his boots. “He needs to have fun when he’s on the pitch”. “He has led by example”.
Hungary coach Bernd Storck thought his side troubled Belgium.
“They have annoyed us in the past because they play very deep”.
While France was made to work hard to advance, Germany had no such difficulties in a polished 3-0 victory over Slovakia, while Eden Hazard inspired Belgium to what ended up as a crushing 4-0 win over Hungary. “We have to take our game to Wales and try to pierce their defense”. We scored goals, we created a lot of chances, we helped Thibaut [Courtois] keep a clean sheet.
“But between what you want and what you dream…” I have never played there.
Kevin de Bruyne got an opportunity to make it 0-2, but his brilliant freekick wasn met by an equally brilliant save from Hungarian shot-stopper Gabor Kiraly.
The most common accusation pointed at Belgium is that they do not move the ball quickly enough when faced with massed ranks; fortunately they were up against nothing of the sort here, allowing a tentative Hungary a quantity of possession they might not have bargained for before pouncing on the regular occasions it was squandered.
Advertisement
He said: “Congratulations to Belgium, but nevertheless I’m very happy about my team’s performance at this Euro”.
