Adnan Januzaj serves up a reminder of his talent with special winner for Belgium against England

Matt Jones - Editor 00:30 29/06/2018
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  • It hardly mattered in terms of progression, but Belgium earned a third straight win at the World Cup and topped Group G by virtue of Adnan Januzaj’s sumptuous strike which earned a 1-0 victory over England.

    It was something of a dead rubber as both teams had qualified, with 17 changes among the 22 starting players, but there was the prestige of coming top, as well as avoiding Colombia in the last 16.

    Here, we analyse the performance of match-winner Januzaj, who served up a special goal to give us a reminder of who he is.

    STATISTICS

    Goals – 1

    Assists – 0

    Shots – 4

    Shots on target – 1

    Touches – 36

    Passes – 17

    Key passes – 1

    Dribbles – 3

    Dispossessed – 2

    30-SECOND REPORT

    This was a chance for Belgium’s fringe players to show their head coach that they can play a part as the World Cup reaches the business end of proceedings.

    Januzaj was pretty wasteful in possession as he embarked on three dribbles but was dispossessed twice. But just when he was perhaps fading further from thought, he dipped his shoulder and buried an absolute bullet past Jordan Pickford. Belgium have plenty of magic in their 23-man squad and Januzaj showed there is plenty of depth.

    GOT RIGHT

    Magic in his feet – The sad case of Januzaj’s fall from grace proves talent alone is not enough to succeed at Manchester United. Michael Laudrup once said of him after he’d torn his Swasnea City side apart: “You can see players who play 10 or 15 games at the top level and everyone tells them they’re so great and they believe it and think they’re already in the top three in the world.”

    It’s proven to be the case for a player still only 23. But he’s undoubtedly an exceptional talent, as proved by mesmeric footwork followed by a brilliant finish.

    GOT WRONG

    Way out wide – He’s a winger by trade so of course he’s going to hug the touchline, but Januzaj was guilty of not getting himself in the game enough. He had only 36 touches the whole game, only striker Michy Batshuayi had less. He made only 17 passes – four fewer than Batshuayi. Every other Red Devil had double that amount, bar goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois (33). Even substitute Vincent Kompany made 17 passes and he only played 17 minutes.

    VERDICT

    He’d come into the tournament under a cloud following a few underwhelming years in the wilderness since leaving the limelight of Manchester United. There was also the crunching tackle on him in training from talisman Kevin De Bruyne that left him in a heap on the deck.

    But Januzaj showed a glimpse of his talent with his goal. He won’t be starting the last 16 clash against Japan but he may have just given manager Roberto Martinez some food for thought.

    RATING: 7/10

    All statistics are compiled using whoscored.com

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