Rio de Janeiro: Young forward Divock Origi vindicated his coach Mark Wilmots’ decision to introduce him in the second half as his opportunistic strike in the 88th minute helped Belgium defeat a gutsy Russian team 1-0 to make it to the last-16 of the World Cup here on Sunday.
It was a match dominated by the Fabio Capello-coached Russians but when it mattered, the Belgians came up trumps.
Chelsea playmaker Eden Hazard sprinted down the left beating right back Andrey Yeschenko before providing a perfect pull-back for Origi, who smashed the ball home from close range.
Credit for the strike should go to Hazard, whose sprint on the counter caught the Russian defence napping as they were in the ascendancy for the better part of the second half.
Belgium, with six points from two matches, have booked their berth in the second round while Russia will now have to beat Algeria in their last game and hope that other results go in their favour.
Belgium, semifinalists in the 1986 edition, have never made it to the knock-out round since 1990.
With their finest collection of players in the last three decades, Vincent Kompany and his men are ready to give a tough time to the other teams.
However, the Russians gave them something to worry about but have to be blamed for not breaking the deadlock.
Forward Alexander Korkorin missed one of the easiest chances in the championship thus far in the 44th minute when he got a free header with left back Dmitry Kombarov providing a measured cross from the left.
Korkorin did the hard work of evading Kompany but headed wide off target when he had Belgian custodian Thibaut Courtois at his mercy.
Russia had two more chances of scoring in the first half with Victor Faizulin unleashing a powerful right-footer after Oleg Shatov set him up. The shot was saved by Courtois diving to his right. The match was into the 12th minute at that point of time.
The Russians might think that they were hard done by when German referee Felix Brych dismissed their claims of a penalty when Maksim Kanunikov, trying to dribble past Belgium defender Toby Alderweireld, was brought down inside the box in the 27th minute.
Off the counter, the trio of Hazard, Dries Mertens and Romelu Lukaku conjured a nice move to enter the opposition’s defensive third.
Mertens was a livewire down right where he repeatedly hoodwinked Kombarov, weaving past him on several occasions.
The Napoli star got close in the 20th minute by beating a defender with an outside dodge but his shot was inches off the mark.
The second half saw Russia make a lot of forays into the opposition defensive third but could not get the decisive goal.
Glushakov, Shatov and Faizulin conjured up some good moves to keep the Belgian defence under pressure.
In the 65th minute, Shativ wriggled his way past substitute Jan Vertonghen before providing Faizulin with an assist but the latter’s attempt struck Kompany’s shin pads.
Belgium, however, came back into the match during the last 10 minutes when they really tested the Russian defence.
Substitute Kevin Mirallas took advantage of a badly formed wall as his low grounder hit the upright much to his dismay.
But that was the time when the Belgians played their pressing game that ended in Origi finding the back of the net.
His was not the first goal for a Belgian substitute in this World Cup. In fact, all three so far have been scored courtesy substitutes for the tiny European country. (PTI)