Much to admire about Belgium

If the boys and girls of the Drachster Lyceum were there to make up the numbers in the VV Drachten grandstand on Thursday, Belgium coach Jean-François De Sart has other ideas in mind for his squad.

Young audience
The secondary school had cut short the youngsters' football class on the adjacent pitch, allowing them to watch the real thing as De Sart conducted training at the amateur Dutch club. The coach is considering introducing fresh bodies for Saturday's third and final Group A game against the Netherlands, though any new faces will be participating in earnest in Heerenveen.

Change to make
"The qualification is close," the 45-year-old former Belgium defender said. "We have had two good matches and now need a third against Holland. I have always said we needed to rely on the whole squad and that is what we will have to do if we are to get to the semi-finals." There will be a compulsory departure from the XI the coach has selected so far in these finals: Marouane Fellaini's two yellow cards in the win against Israel leaving a gap to fill in midfield. De Sart is hinting at further changes, having seen Faris Haroun prove his worth when deployed from the bench on Wednesday.

Desire and purpose
"There are Faris and Killian Overmeire [who could come in], and then there are Anthony Vanden Borre and Jonathan Blondel who although wide players, also played in central midfield at times against Israel," he said. "Our opponents so far [starting with Portugal] have played 4-4-2; the Netherlands play 4-2-4, so there is a possibility we might change it." You suspect De Sart will not want to change much about his side, whose constant desire and attacking purpose won the day against Israel. "Some players – Vanden Borre, Haroun, Blondel – were really motoring by the end of the game, they did an incredible amount of work."

Telling statistics
De Sart ended his press briefing with a list of statistics indicating his team's will to win in that second half against Israel. The ten men gained 48 per cent of the possession, and used it to outscore the opposition in terms of shots on and off target by 7-3 and 7-4, with the corner count also 4-3 in their favour. "Extraordinary motivation," he surmised. The numbers are adding up for Belgium.