Match Report
Belgium overwhelmed New Zealand 5-1 at BC Place, Vancouver on 27 June 2026. Leandro Trossard opened the scoring in the 28th minute for Belgium to make it 1-0. Leandro Trossard added to the tally in the 50th minute for Belgium to make it 2-0. Kevin De Bruyne added to the tally in the 66th minute for Belgium to make it 3-0. Elijah Just got one back in the 84th minute for New Zealand to make it 1-3. Romelu Lukaku added to the tally in the 86th minute for Belgium, set up by Nicolas Raskin, to make it 4-1. Alexis Saelemaekers added to the tally in the 94th minute for Belgium, set up by Romelu Lukaku, to make it 5-1. Marko Stamenic (46') and Elijah Just (56') were booked. Romelu Lukaku and Alexis Saelemaekers scored after coming off the bench. The ranking gap was wide: New Zealand sit 4080 of 4449 in our Elo model, Belgium 366. 3 goals came after the 80th minute. The model had favoured Belgium at 63.3%, and the match followed the form book. It expected around 1.93 goals from Belgium; they scored 5. New Zealand came in on 0.33 points per game from 3 (0W 1D 2L, 4 for, 10 against); Belgium came in on 1.5 points per game from 10 (4W 3D 3L, 16 for, 9 against). Expected goals put the gap at 0.24 to 3.64.