World Cup: Belgium coach, Martinez gives reason for his side’s 2-0 loss to Morocco

 

Belgium manager, Roberto Martinez, has explained why his team was defeated 2-0 in their World Cup tie against Morocco on Sunday.

Martinez said Belgium lost to Morocco because his players failed to score against the North Africans.

According to him, his team played with a fear of losing, adding that the next pass that would link up in the final third during the encounter was missing.

Two goals from Romain Saiss and Zakaria Aboukhlal gave Morocco the victory over Belgium.

“That is a mindset, I don’t think it is a lack of quality. We played a lot better on the ball than we did against Canada and got into really beneficial positions, but then that next pass was missing, that link-up was missing in the final third,” Martinez said at his post-match press conference.

“We could not find that spare man and I think that was because we played with a fear of losing.

“That is difficult to understand because in the last six years we are a team that always finds opportunities to score. We had scored goals in almost 50 consecutive games, but here we failed to find the back of the net and it cost us.

“We probably now are in a situation where we have nothing to lose any more [against Croatia].

“It is something to win. It would be a real start for us at this World Cup because the talent is there and the quality in front of the goal has always been there as one of the strengths of our team.”