Belgium 3 Russia 2
Walem 7, Sonck 78, Wilmots 82; Beschastnykh 52, Sychev 89

(picture later, perhaps)

Oh goodie; Belgium go through! How strange to see such lumping great untidy men, jumping on top of each other with delight. It's almost like such sized persons shouldn't have any emotions; which is rather daft of me to think that way - but I still found it surprising! Tut-tut, Russia, far too little, far too late. I had thought good things would come from the Russians - but I was very wrong - they were a "no team" really. They weren't big like the Belgians and Poland - though neither did they have much in them in the way of daintiness or spirit or talent.

Hopefully, my enthusiasm for this tournament will pick up again soon! Hopefully, the drizzle might stop before the end of the "summer" too.

Teams

Belgium: Geert De Vlieger, Glen De Boeck (Eric van Meir 90), Nico van Kerckhoven, Jacky Peeters, Daniel van Buyten, Bart Goor, Johan Walem, Gert Verheyen (Timmy Simons 78), Yves Vanderhaeghe, Marc Wilmots (capt), Mbo Mpenza (Wesley Sonck 70).

Booked: Vanderhaeghe.

Russia: Ruslan Nigmatullin, Yuri Kovtun, Yuri Nikiforov (Dmitry Sennikov 43), Viktor Onopko (capt), Alexei Smertin (Dimtry Sychev 34), Andrei Solomatin, Valery Karpin (Alexander Kerzhakov 83), Egor Titov, Dmitry Alenichev, Dmitry Khokhlov, Vladimir Beschastnykh.

Booked: Solomatin, Smertin, Alenichev, Sennikov.

Attendance: 46,640

Referee: Kim Milton Nielsen (Den).

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