#4 Wales 3-1 Belgium – UEFA Euro 2008
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Wales provided football fans the perfect underdog story of the Euros this summer. Despite being grouped in a relatively tough pool with England, Slovakia and Russia, they topped it with 6 points from 3 games despite losing to England in their second group stage game.
Their best game of the tournament was in the quarterfinals against Belgium, who led the FIFA rankings at that time. Belgium were on a high of their own, having won 3 consecutive games (the last one being a 4-0 thumping of Hungary). Eden Hazard looked to have returned to form after Chelsea’s poor Premier League campaign and most critics wrote off Wales before the start of the game.
Belgium even managed to take a 1-0 lead through a wonderful long-range strike from Radja Nainggolan in the 13th minute, but Wales regrouped to claw their way back into the game. Ashley Williams scored their equaliser in the 30th minute despite playing with a shoulder injury.
A wonderful moment of trickery from forward Hal Robson-Kanu allowed him to beat Belgium’s stand-in right back Thomas Meunier and give Wales the lead in the 55th minute. Despite dominating possession, Belgium were blunt up front as Romelu Lukaku was just not able to link up with Kevin de Bruyne and Hazard.
The game was sealed by substitute Sam Vokes’ header, and Chris Coleman's side set up a semifinal clash with Portugal.
