Red Devils overcome Wilde mess

Belgium looked to be cruising until de Wilde’s monumental blunder in the 53rd allowed Johan Mjallby to tap the ball into an unguarded net for Sweden, who later had skipper Patrik Andersson sent off for a second bookable offence.

Victory for the Red Devils gives them a clear chance of reaching the quarter-finals along with Group B favourites Italy. Two will cross swords on Wednesday.

Defeat for Sweden, meanwhile, was a body blow and made a mockery of their qualifying record, which saw them reach these finals without losing a match and conceding only one goal along the way.

“I won’t deny that the result gave me greater pleasure than the way we played,” said Belgian coach Robert Waseige. “I won’t surprise you if I say it’s an excellent result for us, given that it wasn’t quite achieved the way we hoped it would,” he said.

Waseige, who has transformed Belgium since taking over last year, then revealed his side’s dressing-room approach.

“We got a result in several of the eight friendly matches we’ve played since August 1999,” he declared. “But we said to ourselves Now the laughing has to stop, today it’s the result that counts’.

“Today, we got the result so I’m not going to be more Catholic than the Pope. I’m very pleased. We didn’t play well — but we did what it took to win and to defend that small lead right until the end.”

Sweden’s joint coach Lars Lagerback said: “I think we started pretty good and created some chances, and after that we didn’t manage to play our normal game.”

The match, played after a colourful though baffling opening ceremony, made a pulsating start with a string of scoring chances for the Swedes.

The hosts were nearly caught out in the opening seconds when Daniel Andersson lobbed a hopeful ball forward and Bologna’s Kennet Andersson ran on for an angled shot that forced De Wilde to the floor.

Patrik Andersson smacked in a low free-kick minutes later which was tipped round for a corner – from which Daniel Andersson saw a piledriver deflect away.

Belgian defender Lorenzo Staelens made a dangerous clearance past his own post a minute later and giant striker Kennet Andersson nodded the resulting corner only just wide as Sweden turned on the pressure.

But the Red Devils gradually recovered from the shock, with Branko Strupar seeing a long shot saved in the 35th minute, earning a verbal tirade from colleague Marc Wilmots who was totally unmarked in a far better position.

Winger Gert Verheyen then hooked over a cross which Mpenza met with a close-range header over the bar.

Two minutes before the interval Goor broke the deadlock after a defensive error by Swede Roland Nilsson allowed the Belgian to run through and tuck his shot past ‘keeper Magnus Hedman with his left foot.

The strike totally changed the mood of the game. “We didn’t play well in the first-half but we turned it up in the second,” admitted the Anderlecht player, delighted with his third goal for the Red Devils.

It was tough luck on the Swedes who had been in the ascendancy in the opening stages but worse was to come immediately after the resumption after the interval.

Swedish minds still seemed to be in the dressing room when Belgium made it 2-0 with the Scandinavian defence flummoxed by Branko Strupar’s backheeled through-ball.

Mpenza dashed through, controlling the ball perfectly legally with his chest – despite Swedish pleas for a handball – and lashing a ferocious drive into the roof of Hedman’s net.

At that point, Sweden looked dead and buried. But de Wilde revived them with a blunder that goalkeeping nightmares are made of — tripping over the ball after a simple back-pass by Philippe Leonard and allowing Mjallby to steer the ball into an empty net from little more than one metre.