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'I'm not a magician', says Wilmots after Wales defeat

2016-07-02 18:22:00 from:SNTV

Marc Wilmots gave his thoughts after Wales produced a superb fightback to beat Belgium 3-1 in their Euro 2016 quarter final in Lille on Friday to reach the semi-finals of a major tournament for the first time.

SOUNDBITE: (French) Marc Wilmots, Belgium manager (Q: Talk me through the game. You seemed to be in control at the start?)
"I think we had a good strategy because for the first 20 or 25 minutes we played a good match. We played attacking football and we dominated Wales and then out of nowhere we just dropped back 15 yards. I think from then I was saying 'push out, push out' but it's difficult, and I was waving my arms as well. But I really can't explain why we dropped 15 metres deeper. Maybe we were worried about the space in behind us. There was a bit of miscommunication as well. To be very clear, I am not a magician. You can't simply replace experience and I had a defence with an average age of 23 years old. I am in charge of them and I can't blame the young players. It's a team. But they need to be a well oiled machine. Before that we had conceded no goals in three matches (since losing to Italy) but we had to replace 50 percent of our backline and perhaps that was too much. I could understand conceding all of our goals from set pieces, but this is something we haven't done for 30 matches now. We made mistakes that we shouldn't have made but I think that we had a good strategy because for the first 20 or 25 minutes we played more football, everyone was shifting across quite well but then it was fear perhaps because they are young. I don't know. But I am in charge, I am responsible for my young team on the pitch and I think that was the best that we had at this moment in time."

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