Belgium coach Rudi Garcia has said that his team will not focus solely on stopping Lamine Yamal. He recently had his say while speaking ahead of their World Cup quarter-final against Spain, and fans have been reacting.
Stressing that he wants his players to disrupt Spain collectively, Garcia revealed that he believes Belgium can end the European champions’ unbeaten defensive run.
Rudi added that his boys have enough attacking quality to compete against Spain’s possession-based style.
His words, “There is no anti-Lamine Yamal plan because there would need to be one for every player. There simply needs to be an anti-Spain plan; we must not let them play to their strengths. They will have possession, but we have qualities too.
When we recover the ball, we will have to do everything to cause them problems. We have everything to win in this match because everyone already sees us out. I hope we will bite into this quarter-final with full teeth. I have Andalusian blood in my veins, but my heart is Belgian.
We must believe in ourselves. Spain are favourites, they are the defending European champions, and the team hasn’t changed since that victory. They are used to playing together. They haven’t conceded a goal in this tournament; it will be time to concede at least one against us. We have a lot of respect for them. To go far, you have to beat big teams. The degree of difficulty rises in this competition.
We know all the players individually. Their strength is also collective, they are perhaps more solid than before. Statistics are made to be overturned. We want to exist and not just suffer. We are capable of scoring; we are the second-best attack in the tournament. We are going to defend our skin dearly. We want to show that we deserve to go further than the quarter-finals.”
