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As we enter into the semi-finals of the World Cup, with France set to take on Belgium in the first of the intriguing semi-finals, let's take a look back into the history of this fixture to find out how these two sides have fared against each other in previous tournament meetings.
#1 World Cup 1938, France: France 3-1 Belgium
1938 saw the first meeting between the 2018 World Cup semi-finalists when both the teams were drawn against each other in the round of 16 fixtures (There were no group stage matches). On 5th June 1938, Belgium took on hosts France for the very first time in a World Cup at the Stade Olympique de Colombes in Paris.
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Hosts France came into the 1938 World Cup on the back of a first-round defeat against Austria, while Belgium came into the tournament after their second successive first-round exit as they were defeated by Germany in 1934.
In a match of very few details available, The French opened the scoring in the 1st minute as Emile Veinante scored the first goal for the hosts, Jean Nicolas then doubled the lead for France as he scored in the 16th minute. Belgium then scored one back as Rik Isemborghs scored in the 38th minute to make it 2-1. Jean Nicolas then scored his second of the match to help France register their first victory of the 1938 World Cup after the match ended 3-1. France went on to lose in their next match against eventual World Cup winners Italy.
#2 World Cup 1986, Mexico: France 4-2 Belgium (after extra time)
It took 48 years for the next meeting to take place, as France took on Belgium at the Estadio Cuauhtemoc in Puebla for the Third Place Play-Off match.
France had their hopes of winning the 1986 World Cup but was thrashed by familiar foes, Germany, after they lost 2-0 in the first semi-final of the 1986 World Cup. The second semi-final saw semifinalists Belgium losing out 2-0 to Argentina after a certain Diego Maradona scored both the goals for the Argentines.
It was Jan Cuelemans who scored the first goal of the match in the 11th-minute to give Belgium a 1-0 lead. The lead only stood for 16-minutes as the French equalized in 27th-minute courtesy of Jean-Marc Ferreri goal and then later lead with a 43rd-minute goal from Jean-Pierre Papin to give a France 2-1 lead in the first half. The second half started off with Belgium going all out to get the equalizing goal, that saw them equalizing in the 73rd-minute as Nico Claesen scored to take the match into extra time after it ended 2-2 in normal time.
A goal each in each half of the extra time from Bernard Genghini (104th-minute) and Manuel Amoros (111th-minute penalty) saw France winning 4-2 against Belgium after the end of the extra time to help them finish third in the 1986 World Cup.
Will the golden generation of Belgium beat the French for the very first time in their World Cup history and enter first ever World Cup finals or will France make it 3 World Cup finals in 20 years?
