Spaniard Roberto Martinez, coach of the Belgian national team, announced his departure from the Red Devils after an early exit from the first round of the 2022 World Cup final in Qatar.
Martinez, 49, said in a statement during a press conference: “I have decided to leave Belgium while training for the World Cup. This is the end of my contract. I didn’t resign or anything like that.”
He added: “This is my last match against Belgium. I came with a clear mission – to get to the World Championships and continue to compete. We have already won a bronze medal. heritage. We have players who have played over 100 international matches and therefore deserve to be present. It’s been 6 fantastic years that we’ve given us everything we’ve got and I’m very proud of it, it’s time for me to retire.”
Martínez explained: “We played one game well in the World Cup, but after that we got scared and we weren’t ready for the responsibility and that led to failure. We have created opportunities better than Croatia today. We could have shown everyone our true strength, but we missed the opportunity.”
And he continued: “The opponent was very good today. We played well in the first half. We tried to distract Croatia and upset them, but the physical performance in the second half decreased, given the opposition that was ahead of us. enjoying a group of players who had the enthusiasm that we lacked in the previous two matches. We tried to win the second match against Morocco but we didn’t succeed, we are very disappointed and we don’t have a place against Morocco. and Croatia, they seized their opportunity.”
Roberto Martinez said: “Lukaku’s goal was to finish attacks and score goals, but we are happy that we planned this match and implemented the plan, and the psychological factor played its role, and we knew that Lukaku would not be able to participate in the 90th minute. , but his participation mainly affected the hearts of the players, in the half.” In the second one, Croatia was better, the match was decisive, but we couldn’t win, and this possibility was not considered, because the players who would let us do it were not available.”
The Belgian national team finished third in the sixth group (F) with 4 points and said goodbye to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar with their Canadian counterpart in fourth and last place without points.
While the Croatian national team finished second in the group standings with 5 points, two points behind leaders Morocco, and together they reached the final price of the 22nd FIFA World Cup 2022 final.
Croatia will become a finalist of the Russia 2018 World Cup, waiting for the champions of Group E (E), which includes Spain, Germany, Japan and Costa Rica.
For now, Morocco will face the runners-up in Group E (E).