Belgian coach Roberto Martinez did not hesitate to praise the quality of Kylian Mbappe in the French squad ahead of the second team meeting in the 2018 World Cup semifinals Russia on Wednesday (11/7) at 1:00 in the morning. He admitted stopping Mbappe is not an easy task.

Belgium has gone through many hurdles to reach this semi-final. Eden Hazard et al. indeed managed to top Group G, but they had to fight hard to beat Japan in the last 16. Brazil are already waiting in the quarter-finals.

Belgium was once again capable of showing a tough mentality and conquered Brazil, this time with a more convincing appearance. Later, Belgium again faced a tough test, France covered the way to the champions.

Espn mentions, Roberto Martinez mentions one of the reasons for Belgium's success is teamwork. The Belgian squad has been playing together for years, the status of the gold generation is not so important, they just want to play together.

"These players have worked together extraordinarily for years, and they deserve to be in their current position," Martinez said.

"I feel the most important aspect we continue to work on is teamwork, individual abilities and talents are important, but in this tournament the most important is playing the team."

Therefore, according to Martinez the only way to stop Mbappe and France is to once again play as a team. He believes Belgium can do it and qualify for the finals.

"It (stopping Mbappe) is a very difficult thing to do, I think there is no easy answer because Mbappe is a great player in that condition (fast attack)," he concluded.

In addition to holding Mbappe, Belgium will once again rely on the rapid counterattack as they show so far.

(Bola.com)