France vs Belgium live blog, full-time: Umtiti header sends French to Moscow

FULL-TIME, France 1-0 Belgium: For all the pre-match hype, this game kind of disappointed a little bit. It wasn’t great, but games this big in importance aren’t supposed to be anyway. In the end, France confirmed their status as favorites and are playing for the championship thanks to a great Umtiti header.

GOAL! FRANCE 1-0 Belgium (Umtiti 51’): FRANCE TAKE THE LEAD!!! SAMUEL UMTITI HEADS HOME A CORNER AND IT’S A BARCELONA MAN PUTTING THE FRENCH AHEAD!

SECOND HALF KICKOFF! France 0-0 Belgium: A very good game should be even better now that both teams are looking for goals in the second half.

HALFTIME, France 0-0 Belgium: Fantastic start by Belgium, and if not for another Save of the Tournament moment from Hugo Lloris, the Red Devils would have been up. But they couldn’t score and France improved a lot towards the end of the half, creating some dangerous chances and making the second half a must-watch 45 minutes.

KICKOFF! France 0-0 Belgium: This should be an amazing game! COME ON, SAMMY!

LINEUPS

FRANCE

Starting XI: Lloris; Pavard, Varane, Umtiti, Hernández; Mbappé, Pogba, Kanté, Matuidi; Griezmann, Giroud

Bench: Mandanda (GK), Areola (GK), Kimpembé, Rami, Sidibé, Mendy, Tolisso, N’Zonzi, Lemar, Dembélé, Fekir, Thauvin

BELGIUM

Starting XI: Courtois; Chadli, Alderweireld, Kompany, Vertonghen; Fellaini, Witsel, Dembélé; Lukaku, De Bruyne, Hazard

Bench: Mignolet (GK), Casteels (GK), Vermaelen, Boyata, Dendoncker, Carrasco, T.Hazard, Tielemans, Mertens, Januzaj, Batshuayi, Meunier (suspended)

The World Cup semi-finals are here! The first matchup of the Final Four is perhaps the best one, with France and Belgium clashing for a place in Moscow in what should be a simply fantastic football match. Samuel Umtiti and Ousmane Dembélé will play for the French here, with Thomas Vermaelen watching from the Belgium bench. So Barcelona fans, join us to watch this one!

(Note: the comments will be open as soon as the team news come out, because our commenter people love commenting and sometimes there are too many comments in the comments section)

MATCH INFO

Date/Time: Tuesday, July 10, 2018, 8pm CET (Barcelona), 7pm BST/WAT (UK & Nigeria), 2pm EST, 11am PST (USA), 11.30pm IST (India)

Venue: Saint Petersburg Stadium, St. Petersburg

HOW TO WATCH, STREAM WORLD CUP

How to watch on TV: FOX (USA), BBC One (UK), SuperSport 3 (Nigeria), Sony ESPN (India), TSN (Canada), others

How to stream: BBC iPlayer (UK), TSN GO (Canada), FuboTV (7-day free trial, click here to sign up)

Matchday Thread Rules

We don’t have a lot of rules here, but there are a few things to keep in mind when joining our matchday threads:

Even if the referee sucks or we lose the game, no swearing. It’s just unnecessary. Also, don’t discuss illegal streaming links. Those who do will be warned, and those who post links will be banned. Finally, be nice to each other. This is a Barcelona community and we don’t need to offend one another, especially when it’s the World Cup.

Have fun with the game! Forever and ever, no matter the competition, VISCA EL BARÇA!