World Cup 2018: 3 reasons why France beat Belgium 1-0 in the semifinals

#2 They effectively shut down the Belgian attack

The Belgian attack was

shutdown

completely

With the likes of Eden Hazard, Kevin De Bruyne and Romelu Lukaku on their side, the Belgian's have been scarily impressive during their attacking transitions. They move the ball forward with so much ease and comfort that it almost looks effortless.

Didier Deschamps knew that his side would have to really negate any impact the Belgian stars could have in the game if they were to go through to the final.

Belgium often found their creative midfielder's struggling to either provide the service or penetrate an impressive French defence.

France was in no mood to mindlessly recycle possession with no end result. Kante and Pogba found it relatively easy to hold down the fort, as the creative fronts of the Belgian attack often dropped deep to get things moving forward.

The midfield was a hot-pot of individual battles and it's safe to say that France won it there as well.

Adding to the fact that Giroud, Griezmann and Mbappe tirelessly dropped back to cover for their team-mates, Belgium found it to be an increasingly hard task to turn the tie around.

Varane and Umtiti didn't face a single problem when it came to suppressing Lukaku's role, who was quite literally in both their pockets.

The Belgian striker struggled, unlike his previous performances, to make something out of nothing.