Plan B of the Belgium team, which protected its main pillars such as Kevin De Bruyne, Romelu Lukaku or Thibaut Courtois, among others, found in the Crystal Palace attacker Michy Batshuayi as a solution for the friendly match against Switzerland, which was He advanced on the scoreboard and did not take advantage of his options. 2-0 for the “red devils” in Leuven.
The set of Robert Martínez, who did not even have his best players on the bench, gave minutes to the less usual. It was enough for Belgium to get the game through and continue without losing at home since September 2016, when they lost to Spain 0-2.
It took the Belgian team to catch the air in the shock, who thought more about their appointments in the Nations League than about the visit to Switzerland. The classification to the semifinals is played by Roberto Martínez's team, which leads Group 2 and receives England on Sunday and Denmark on Wednesday.
In fact, before the quarter of an hour, the Swiss team took advantage, which has lost all its matches since the confinement. A defensive error by Sebastiaan Bornauw, who combed back an aerial ball, was taken advantage of by Admir Mehmedi, who intercepted the ball, stood before Mignolet and scored.
They could not match the home team before the break against a rival who has a foot and a half in the second division of the Nations League and who host Spain on Saturday before playing Ukraine on the final day.
Four substitutions were made by Vladimir Petkovic who, five minutes after the restart, ran into a Belgium draw. A poor clearance by Loris Benito was taken advantage of by Youri Tielemans who sent Batshuayi. The former Valencia player got rid of a rival and beat Yvon Mvogo.
Later, Mignolet saved his team from the second visitor goal and in 70 the Belgian triumph came with a play in which the three attackers intervened that ended with a pass from Thomas Foket that Batshuayi culminated.
Belgium, 2: Mignolet ,; Bornauw (Jason Denayer, m.92), Mechele, Vertonghen (Delcroix, m.58); Chadli (Foket, m.58), Praet, Dendoncker (Tielemans, m.46), Thorgan Hazard (De Ketelaere, m.92); Vanaken, Lukebakio (Kayembe, m.83) and Michy Batshuayi
Switzerland, 1: Mvogo; Cumart, Schaer, Benito (Omeragic, m.75), Fernandes, Xhaka (Shaqiri, m.46), Sow, Zuber (Vargas, m.46); Mehmedi (Steffen, m.46); Embolo (Widmer, m.46) and Gavranovic (Seferovic, m.63)
Goals: 0-1, m.13: Admir Mehmedi; 1-1, m. 49: Michy Batshuayi. 2-1, m.76: Batshuayi.
Referee Jerome Brisard (FRA). He showed a yellow card to Thomas Foket from Belgium.
Incidents: international friendly match played at the King Power Den Dreef stadium in Haverfee, Leuven. No audience.