The Belgium coach, Marc Wilmots, said he never had any doubt his misfiring team would overhaul a one-goal deficit against Algeria, having written in the dressing room beforehand that his substitutes would make the difference.
But his opposite number, the fiery Bosnian Vahid Halilhodzic, believed that his side deserved at least a draw and hit out at the referee for not awarding a foul in the build-up to Belgium’s winning goal.
Wilmots said he was pleased with the way his team had dealt with the pressure on a group of players dubbed a “golden generation” by their media but conceded they were too slow to move the ball in the first half. “I chose a line-up for which I wanted a lot of ball possession,” he said after notching up Belgium’s first World Cup victory since 2002, a dozen years to the day after he played in the side that lost to Brazil. “We were very calm and handled this very well. In the dressing room I had written that substitutes would make all the difference. We were a bit slow in the first half. We did not find solutions to a team that did not want to play. After that we saw momentum. The Algerian team was getting tired.”
Mildly frustrated with questions over Belgium’s disjointed first-half display, he said that his game plan had worked. “You may not be happy. The result is what counts. We had six opportunities and they were given one, full stop. I should congratulate the players for their mentality. We made major progress and headway.
“At half-time the players were a bit down but I said: ‘Don’t worry, we will completely change the course of the match.’ We deserved to win.”
Kevin De Bruyne, the Wolfsburg midfielder who was shifted to the right wing from the more central position he has tended to occupy for Belgium of late, admitted they struggled in the first period against a disciplined Algeria side.
“The first half was very difficult because Algeria played very well in a block with good organisation,” he said. “In the second half there was a lot more space. It was a very good team performance. Physically speaking it was a bit more difficult for Algeria. We showed patience and that’s important – not to become too nervous.”
Wilmots paid tribute to the substitutes who changed the game. Dries Mertens offered “speed” while Marouane Fellaini was “very motivated”. And he attempted to reassure Romelu Lukaku, the 21-year-old striker who laboured for an hour before giving way to Divock Origi.
“He is 20 years old [sic],” he said. “He plays in small spaces. For him it’s very difficult. It was his first World Cup match. I will need Lukaku some more, that’s for sure.”
Halilhodzic lamented a “great missed opportunity” for his side but agreed the substitutions had proved “decisive”. He also took issue with what he believed was a foul by De Bruyne on the Algeria goalscorer, Sofiane Feghouli, in the build-up to the winning goal.
“For me it was an obvious foul. He couldn’t advance, he couldn’t progress because he had somebody behind. It was a foul against him. This could have changed the score because the second goal would not have been scored.”
Ultimately the physical condition of his young side – who sank progressively deeper in the second half as they tried to hang on – had told.
“I have a number of players who are young or not very experienced,” he said. “Each Algerian player must improve his condition by 30% or 50%. The Belgian players are in much better shape. But there was very little difference between both teams. We could have won. They gave as much as they could at the present time.”