Belgium head coach Roberto Martinez rues "small margins" after World Cup semi-final defeat by France

Samuel Umtiti’s header six minutes into the second half was enough to ensure Les Bleus booked their place in the Moscow final on July 15, leaving Belgium to prepare for the third/fourth place play-off the day before.

Martinez sympathised with his players after seeing the country’s dubbed golden generation fail to break down Didier Deschamps’ stubborn defence, claiming that the defeat came down to fine margins.

“It was a tight game and there weren’t many big moments to decide it,” he said in his post-match press conference. “I felt we started the second-half with a better tempo and were growing into the game when we conceded from a corner. The difference between winning and losing came down to one dead-ball situation.

“We controlled the counter-attack of [Kylian] Mbappe and [Antoine] Griezmann, but we have to give a lot of credit to the way France defended. We couldn’t find that little bit of magic in front of goal or that bit of luck.

“It was always going to come down to small margins, and the first goal was always going to be vital. The margin came down to a corner-kick.”

Belgium dramatically came from two goals down to defeat Japan 3-2 in their round of 16 clash before producing one of the most complete displays of the tournament in knocking out favourites Brazil 2-1 in the quarter-finals.

Three of the five goals Belgium conceded were from dead-ball situations, but Martinez refused to admit that failure to prepare for defending set pieces was his team’s undoing in Russia.

“We’ve been very strong defending dead balls,” he added. “France have been strong in that department, we knew that, but I don’t think that’s been a weakness of our play.

“Today is an unfortunate situation where we have a ball into an area where we’ve got our structure right. It’s the difference of a centimetre. I don’t think it’s a case of us not being focused enough. I haven’t seen this as a weakness.

“That little bit of composure and sharp movement around the box that we normally have [was the difference]. We got in good one v one situations. Not scoring the first goal meant it was always going to be difficult with the way that France were set up.

“The focus of the group was to win the tournament, so it’s a really sad dressing room. We could’ve come to this stage and froze and not dealt with what France have done in the past. They are used to being in big games so I don’t want any of my players to be frustrated or disappointed. We want to finish on a high.”