{"id":24426,"date":"2026-06-27T15:32:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T15:32:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/24426\/"},"modified":"2026-06-27T15:32:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T15:32:18","slug":"belgiums-leandro-trossard-adds-to-successful-year-with-2-goals-in-world-cup-win-over-new-zealand-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/24426\/","title":{"rendered":"Belgium\u2019s Leandro Trossard adds to successful year with 2 goals in World Cup win over New Zealand"},"content":{"rendered":"

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) \u2014 Leandro Trossard went from a World Cup<\/a> substitute four years ago to a starter in this tournament \u2014 and his two goals against New Zealand on Friday night<\/a> helped cement his legacy as one of Belgium\u2019s best players of this era.<\/p>\n

Trossard\u2019s year has already been incredibly successful as he won the Premier League and reached the UEFA Champions League final with Arsenal, marking one of the best seasons in club history. He also scored one of the biggest goals of the season in a 1-0 victory over West Ham, the final win Arsenal needed for its first Premier League title since 2004.<\/p>\n

His brace on Friday helped salvage a World Cup campaign for Belgium that began with two disappointing draws. He had the first two goals in a 5-1 win over New Zealand that sent the Red Devils to the knockout round as the Group G winner.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel very good, I think we\u2019re growing into the tournament, myself as well,\u201d Trossard said. \u201cWe\u2019re really happy to come first and go to the next round.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trossard, 31, first joined the Belgian national team in 2020, quickly becoming a key contributor in Belgium\u2019s qualification campaign for the 2022 World Cup. He came on as a substitute for the Red Devils in all three of their 2022 World Cup matches.<\/p>\n

Belgium, which finished third overall at the 2018 World Cup, failed to qualify for the knockout stage in 2022 despite expectations of a deep run. That trend was at risk of continuing, but New Zealand\u2019s defense was no match for Trossard at a time Belgium needed it most.<\/p>\n

Trossard started all three group-stage matches in this year\u2019s World Cup for Belgium, and his first goal Friday was the first scored by a Belgian after more than 200 minutes of play.<\/p>\n

In the 28th minute, the ball found Trossard\u2019s feet and he tapped it in from inside the 6-yard box. He then followed up his own rebound in the 50th minute to double the lead for Belgium.<\/p>\n

Trossard has shown he can deliver in the big moments not only at the club level, but also on the world\u2019s biggest stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019s the best player of the Belgian selection since the beginning of the World Cup,\u201d manager Rudi Garcia said Friday. \u201cBefore the match, I asked him to be more decisive in his play. To be more challenging. Leandro was really able to score a lot at Arsenal, so he\u2019s perfectly capable, and that is what he did tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014<\/p>\n

Ben Kule is a student in the University of Georgia\u2019s Carmical Sports Media Institute.<\/p>\n

\u2014<\/p>\n

See more of AP\u2019s World Cup coverage here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) \u2014 Leandro Trossard went from a World Cup substitute four years ago to a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24427,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[14336,7,4988,14337,3933,5422,3216,2176,5407,3934,1176],"class_list":["post-24426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-belgium","tag-arsenal-fc","tag-belgium","tag-belgium-national-soccer-team","tag-ben-kule","tag-fifa-world-cup","tag-leandro-trossard","tag-manchester-united-fc","tag-new-zealand","tag-rudi-garcia","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@be\/116822798654559822","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24426","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=24426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}