Belgium's perfect Kis

At the midway point in Belgium's UEFA European Under-17 Championship group stage campaign, Kevin Kis had yet to make it off the bench and the hosts were facing an uphill struggle to reach the semi-finals. But it is fair to say that Kis has had a tournament of two halves.

Kis double
The bustling attacker was finally introduced, on the left wing, at the interval against England with Belgium 1-0 down having previously been pegged back to 2-2 against the Netherlands. Within a couple of minutes a strong Kis run had earned a corner, from which Belgium equalised to secure a point. Then, last night, Kis started versus Iceland, opening the scoring on 15 minutes before his penalty rounded off a 5-1 win that sealed a last-four berth.

Belgium first
"I am very happy about the two goals," Kis told uefa.com. "It is the first time I have scored twice in one game for Belgium." However, he accepted his reserve status at the beginning of the championship. "It was the coach's decision, it was for the good of the team," he added. "And in the end it worked out, because I played afterwards and I did what I did for the team."

Spain semi-final
As tough as Iceland were, Thursday's semi-final against Spain in Tournai will clearly be a step up - the Spanish thrashed a Belgium side including Kis 6-1 in October. Yet the KRC Genk player remains bullish. "We have the squad to be in the top four in Europe," he said. "We have a very good team. And now we will try to beat Spain, that's what we will do now. They are the best team in Europe. It will be very hard to beat them, but we will try." Having home support behind them will help, of course. "We have had good backing from the fans and that gives us something extra to play for. That has given us the extra edge to do well."