Raskin hails ‘justice’ after Belgium end USA’s World Cup following Balogun row | OneFootball

Belgium midfielder Nicolas Raskin says his side’s 4-1 win over the United States felt like justice had been served after the decision to allow suspended Folarin Balogun to play.

Balogun had been sent off during the USA’s 2-0 win against Bosnia and Herzegovina in the round of 32, but the forward’s automatic one-match ban was suspended for a probationary period of one year.

U.S president Donald Trump revealed he spoke to FIFA president Gianni Infantino and requested a review of the decision to suspend Balogun, though Infantino has stressed that he had nothing to do with the final outcome, and that it was instead decided by an independent committee.

The decision brought widespread criticism, including from UEFA and the Belgian FA. In the end, Belgium ran away with the round of 16 tie, winning 4-1, with Rangers midfielder Raskin assisting the opening goal.

“Like I said, I think there’s always a justice somewhere in life and the fact that something can happen like that, you can call it what you want, but we don’t think that was fair,” Raskin said after the game on Balogun being allowed to play. “And today, I think it just brings us a little bit of luck. We needed to win the game and that’s it.”

Dodi Lukebakio echoed his teammate’s comments, saying despite the controversy, the most important thing was to secure the win.

“That’s something that we didn’t focus on,” he said. “We are players, so of course, we didn’t understand really why he was allowed to play because he got the red card. But, we didn’t want to go too much into it.

“We wanted to be focused and to play our game, and that’s what we did today. So we are very happy, very proud. And, what is all around us, that’s not our problem. We try to show ourselves on the pitch and that’s what we did today. So we are very happy.”