Brussels [Belgium], June 9 (ANI): Belgium responded to their opening UEFA Nations League defeat against the Netherlands with five second-half goals as they came back to beat Poland 6-1 on Wednesday.
Belgium began brightly, Michy Batshuayi hitting the post then having a goal disallowed in the first five minutes.
Poland’s response was a patient one, their strikers going closer and closer until Robert Lewandowski took one touch to control then got their opener with a half-volley after 28 minutes.
The home team were level shortly before half-time as Timothy Castagne’s smart stabbed pass was steered in by Axel Witsel to make it 1-1 at the break.
From there, Belgium went on to dominate and took a merited lead when Eden Hazard broke to set up Kevin De Bruyne as he curled in from just inside the box.
Substitute Leandro Trossard then scored twice – his second a deep curling effort – before a long-range drive from Leander Dendoncker and Lois Openda’s first goal for his country rounded off an ultimately emphatic win.
Roberto Martinez, Belgium coach, after the match said: “It brings extra emotion when you lose against your rivals so that was definitely a motivator tonight. Against The Netherlands, we were passive, waiting, insecure. Here, we were a team instead of a bunch of individuals.”
Yannick Carrasco, the winger of the winning team added: “We’ve reviewed the Netherlands match. We learned from our mistakes and today we just really wanted to show our fans why they should not lose faith. We all knew what we had to do and I’m just happy we could give this to our fans. Now we want to do even better in the next two matches.”
Belgium have now scored in 46 consecutive international matches, as well as in their last 14 UEFA Nations League fixtures. While Poland conceded their highest number of goals in a game since losing 6-0 to Spain in a friendly in June 2010. (ANI)