{"id":24386,"date":"2026-06-27T10:15:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T10:15:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/24386\/"},"modified":"2026-06-27T10:15:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T10:15:12","slug":"mike-saves-alexis-scores-france-and-belgium-top-their-groups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/24386\/","title":{"rendered":"MIKE SAVES, ALEXIS SCORES: FRANCE AND BELGIUM TOP THEIR GROUPS"},"content":{"rendered":"

AC Milan had plenty to celebrate during the latest night of the FIFA World Cup 2026, with four Rossoneri involved across Foxborough and Vancouver. In Massachusetts,\u00a0France\u00a0defeated\u00a0Norway\u00a04-1 in the Group I top of the table clash thanks to a hat-trick from\u00a0Ousmane Demb\u00e9l\u00e9\u00a0and a late goal from\u00a0D\u00e9sir\u00e9 Dou\u00e9. One of the standout performers was\u00a0Mike Maignan, with the AC Milan captain<\/a> becoming the first Rossoneri goalkeeper ever to save a penalty at a FIFA World Cup, denying\u00a0J\u00f8rgen Strand Larsen\u00a0from the spot early in the second half with the score at 3-1.\u00a0Adrien Rabiot\u00a0remained an unused substitute, as he was rested ahead of the Round of 32. Having finished top of the group with a perfect record, France will face\u00a0Sweden\u00a0in East Rutherford at the stadium that will also host the World Cup final on 19 July on Tuesday 30 June at 23:00 CEST.<\/p>\n

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Meanwhile, in Canada,\u00a0Belgium\u00a0secured top spot in Group G with a commanding 5-1 victory over\u00a0New Zealand, bouncing back from draws against\u00a0Egypt\u00a0and\u00a0Iran. After a brace from\u00a0Leandro Trossard\u00a0and goals from\u00a0Kevin De Bruyne and\u00a0Romelu Lukaku,\u00a0Alexis Saelemaekers\u00a0rounded off the scoring deep into stoppage time, just after midnight in Brussels on his birthday<\/a> with his first-ever World Cup goal and third senior international goal after coming on in the 72nd minute. It was another memorable moment for AC Milan’s No. 56<\/a>, while\u00a0Koni De Winter\u00a0remained on the bench throughout. Belgium will now turn their attention to the Round of 32, where they will face one of the best third-placed teams either\u00a0South Korea,\u00a0Senegal\u00a0or either\u00a0Algeria\u00a0or\u00a0Austria in Seattle on Wednesday 1 July at 22:00 CEST.<\/p>\n

Match kits, clothing, accessories, gift ideas and much more: visit the AC Milan online Store<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AC Milan had plenty to celebrate during the latest night of the FIFA World Cup 2026, with four…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24387,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[1310,14332,3924,6554,313,7,210,5260,115,3164,2196,5399,14333,5422,14330,2176,3551,14331,5400,6289,4570,5383,179],"class_list":["post-24386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-belgium","tag-ac-milan","tag-adrien-rabiot","tag-alexis-saelemaekers","tag-algeria","tag-austria","tag-belgium","tag-canada","tag-egypt","tag-france","tag-iran","tag-kevin-de-bruyne","tag-koni-de-winter","tag-larsen","tag-leandro-trossard","tag-mike-saves","tag-new-zealand","tag-norway","tag-ousmane-dembele","tag-romelu-lukaku","tag-rossoneri","tag-senegal","tag-south-korea","tag-sweden"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@be\/116821552432126238","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}