The 2018 World Cup is now down to its last few teams. Some big names have fallen along the way with the likes of Spain, Argentina, Brazil and perhaps most notably Germany all failing to live up to expectations. Despite these sides falling at earlier stages there can be no argument that the four sides left at the semi-final stage, France, Belgium, England and Croatia, deserve their place in the later stages.
The first semi-final saw France, champions in 1998, come up against Belgium in a match that would see the best defence at the tournament, France, against one of the best attacks, Belgium. In the end, the narrative of defence against attack was played out over the course of the 90 minutes and in the end, the margins between the French victory and the Belgian defeat were minimal.
How though did the French manage to secure their passage through to the final in Moscow?
Lineups
In the quarter-final against Brazil, the Belgian coach Roberto Martinez was given a huge amount of credit for his tactical gameplan which saw Romelu Lukaku moved out to play from a starting slot on the right-hand side with Kevin De Bruyne playing as almost a false nine. This switch caught the Brazilians by surprise with Marcelo prevented from playing in the attacking phase as much as he would have liked by the presence of Lukaku in his zone.
This time around with the right back or wing back Thomas Meunier serving a suspension Martinez again sprung a surprise in giving the Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Mousa Dembele only his second start to the tournament.
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