Belgians beat Russians 3-2 in World Cup match

The Russian national team has failed to qualify for the second round from Group H losing a World Cup match with Belgium 2-3 /0-1/. The Belgians took the lead through a skilful kick by Johan Walem at the 7th minute of the match.

Vladimir Beschastnyh scored at the 52nd minute of the match. Then, however, the Red Devils scored twice more. At first Wesley Sonck gave the lead to his team at the 72nd minute of the game, which was followed by a 3-minute later score by Marc Wilmots. The Belgians' 3rd score cut off the Russians' hopes for qualifying for the second round. At the end of the match Dmitry Sychev scored his first World Cup 2002 goal. Danish referee Kim Milton Nielsen gave two minutes as additional time, but the late storm of the Geert de Vlieger gate failed to bring the desired fruit to Oleg Romantsev's team.

The victory left the Russians behind with 3 points against the Belgians' 5.

In a parallel Group H match the Japanese beat the Tunisians 2-0 coming first.