In the early morning of March 27, Beijing time, a friendly match in the European zone began, and the two sides were Ireland and Belgium. As a result, after 90 minutes of fighting, Ireland tied the score twice after falling behind twice, and finally drew 2-2 with the world number one Belgian team.
Since this game is only a training friendly match, Belgium did not send most of the main players, and the absolute members such as Lukaku and De Bruyne did not play in this game. But even so, Belgium's overall strength is still far superior to Ireland, which is ranked 49th in the world.
Just 12 minutes into the game, Batshua Ineche fired a shot from the back and Belgium took a 1-0 lead. Ireland equalised before half-time. In a melee in the penalty area, Ogburn stopped the ball + barb in one go, pulling the total score of the two sides back to a 1-1 draw.
In the second half, Belgium's star players continued to threaten. In the 59th minute, Eden Hazard Jr. drove a corner kick and Vanakhan's header was refracted into the net, giving the world number one another 2-1 lead. Just when the Belgians thought they could get the game, they made a series of mistakes in the last minute.
First in the 78th minute, the Belgian player shoveled down the Irish player in the penalty area, but the referee did not say anything. In the 84th minute, Ogburn, who successfully scored in the first half, provided an assist, and Alain Brown's header drove the two sides to a 2-2 draw on aggregate. In the end, the whole game was over, and the two sides could only end in a draw.
For the world number one Belgium, they also have an excuse that many main players are not on the field, which is not the real strength of the team. But Belgium, which is as strong as the world's first, has not been able to win against Ireland, which is so low in the ranking in the case of rotation, which is really criticized.
On the Irish side, although they did not qualify for the World Cup, their recent performances are eye-catching. Coupled with the previous group stage draw with Portugal in the qualifying round, they have recently made it impossible for the two major national team giants to win. The draw with Portugal is also the key to Ronaldo's entry into the play-offs.
In this qualifier, Ireland did not play well, and even lost to Luxembourg at one point, which made them miss the group promotion early. So far, Irish football has missed the World Cup for 20 consecutive years, and the last time it played was in 2002. Ireland's strength is so strong that it has not been able to enter the World Cup for such a long time, reflecting the fierceness of the European zone.
The last time Ireland approached the World Cup was in 2010. In the World Cup qualifiers in South Africa, Ireland ended up in a play-off with France. As a result, in the second leg, France qualified for the promotion thanks to Henry's handball in extra time. The situation caused a lot of waves at the time, and Henry even publicly apologized that a rematch was the best result. But in the end FIFA rejected Ireland's application, which could only be hacked once for a crucial World Cup qualification.