Belgium have secured a 3-0 win over Egypt in Wednesday night’s international friendly at the King Baudouin Stadium.
The visitors, missing the injured Mohamed Salah, sought to impose themselves on their opponents from the off, Tarek Hamed seeing yellow for hacking down Eden Hazard in the first minute.
Hazard and Kevin De Bruyne then combined to carve out the first opening, the latter narrowly failing to find Romelu Lukaku and Yannick Carrasco on seven minutes.
The ninth minute saw another yellow card for Egypt,Ahmed Fathi taking out Carrasco, while four minutes later, Mohamed Elneny’s half-volley struck Laurent Ciman, leading to half-hearted penalty calls.
Belgium were soon able to find their stride and took the lead on 26 minutes, Lukaku making the most of Essam Elhadary’s weak palm into the six-yard box to finish off on the rebound.
The Red Devils added a second nine minutes before the break, Carrasco hustling possession back from Fathi before a cutback from the byline was rifled home by Hazard.
Roberto Martinez’s charges continued to impress after the restart, with Michy Batshuayi firing inches over after Adnan Zanuzaj’s initial snapshot bobbling into the Chelsea man’s path.
Despite the game fizzling out towards the end, the hosts went on to score a third goal in injury time, a simple tap-in from Marouane Fellaini following great work from Batshuayi.
Belgium face Costa Rica on Monday night in their final friendly before the World Cup, while Egypt’s next game is their Group A opener against Uruguay on June 15.
BELGIUM (3-4-2-1): Courtois (Casteels 45′); Alderweireld, Ciman, Vertonghen (Boyata 81′); Meunier (T. Hazard 70′), De Bruyne, Witsel (Fellaini 45′), Carrasco; Mertens (Januzaj 45′), E. Hazard (Batshuayi 45′); Lukaku (Chadli 45′)
EGYPT (4-2-3-1): El Hadary (El Shenawy 45′); Fathy (Elmohamady 71′), Gabr, Hegazy, Abdel-Shafi; Elneny, El Said Hamed (Morsy 62′); Warda (Gaber 79′), El Said, Sobhi (Kahraba 67′); Mohsen (Hassan 56′)
