Ex-defender of the Russian national team Shishkin criticized the game of the Belgians at the start of the 2022 World Cup

The former defender of Spartak, Lokomotiv and the Russian national team Roman Shishkin, commenting on the start of Belgium at the World Cup, expressed confidence that more than one sensation would happen at the tournament.

Belgium beat Canada 1-0 in the first round.

– To be honest, I was surprised by the Belgians’ performance, I expected a little bit different from this team. Still a strong generation. It is clear that there is no Lukaku, but the main players are all in the clip. But it feels like the team is missing something. In the match with Canada, the opponent completely outplayed them, it seems that for the first ten minutes Belgium did not understand what was happening at all. And if not for the missed penalty, the big question is how the match would have turned out. The Canadians had a lot of approaches, they were great in attack, but the implementation was lame. This is understandable – after all, the level of their players is not the same as that of the same Belgians or other teams, there is not enough quality in the final stage. If they had approached it more calmly, the score would have been different. And the Belgians with such a game can hardly count on something serious. Maybe they will leave the group, but in the future it will be difficult for them, – RB Sport quotes Shishkin.

– In general, what are your impressions of the start of the World Cup?

– Even before it started, I said that there would be sensations on it. And so they started happening. The same victory of Japan over the Germans. And in general, there are a lot of results that surprise, I don’t even talk about Argentina – everyone wondered how many goals they would score, but then they took it and lost. So all the favorites should pay attention to this, because in the realities of modern football, any team that ends up at the World Cup can surprise. Everyone has learned how to play, they approach such a tournament with high quality. Therefore, I expect more sensations, it is very interesting to watch. It’s a pity, of course, that ours are not there – I would like to see how the Russian team would look at the World Cup in such realities of modern football.