Belgium Holds Limited Training Session Ahead of Semi-Final Against France

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Belgium held a limited training session ahead of the World Cup semi-final match against France. The winner will advance to the finals in order to fight for the World Cup against either Croatian or English players in Moscow.
Sputnik

The Red Devils had a day off on Saturday and they resumed training on Sunday while only those footballers, who did not play in the quarter-final match, as well as midfielder Marouane Fellaini, Nacer Chadli, Kevin De Bruyne and the goalkeepers, took part in the session.

The training session was held at Belgium's World Cup base camp outside Moscow.

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The team will have one more training on Monday morning before heading to St. Petersburg in the afternoon.

Meanwhile, Belgium defender Thomas Vermaelen said that the players are worried their fans may be in minority in the stands at the upcoming match against France.

"We are receiving a lot of photos of our fans celebrating in Belgium. Unfortunately, we can't celebrate the way they do. We were very happy when we beat Brazil but almost immediately switched to the match against France. We understand that it's not so easy for fans to get to the host cities, the logistics are more complicated than at the UEFA Euro 2016, but we hope more fans will attend the semi-final," Vermaelen told journalists.

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At the same time, the defender stated that the team has players who can win the Ballon d'Or award.

"We have players who can win the Ballon d'Or award, but we don't think about it and we don't discuss it," Vermaelen told journalists, adding that in his opinion Thibaut Courtois is the best goalkeeper at the FIFA World Cup in Russia.

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The Ballon d'Or is an annual football award that honors the male player deemed to have performed the best over the previous year, based on voting by football journalists.

Belgium beat five-time champions Brazil 2-1 in Kazan on Friday to qualify for the World Cup semi-finals, where they will face the 1998 winners France at St. Petersburg Stadium on Tuesday.

The 2018 FIFA World Cup kicked off on June 14 and will continue until July 15, with the final set to be played at Moscow's Luzhniki Stadium.

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