{"id":497127,"date":"2026-06-26T20:17:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T20:17:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/497127\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T20:17:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T20:17:18","slug":"all-whites-must-be-flawless-if-they-want-to-beat-belgium-coach-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/497127\/","title":{"rendered":"All Whites must be ‘flawless’ if they want to beat Belgium, coach says"},"content":{"rendered":"

All Whites head coach Darren Bazeley says his team must be “flawless” if they are to beat Belgium in tomorrow’s final World Cup group game. <\/p>\n

Only a win will be enough for New Zealand to advance into the round of 32.<\/p>\n

The All Whites’ 3- 1 loss to Egypt<\/a> means three points tomorrow are necessary \u2013 their single point from the opening 2-2 draw with Iran<\/a> providing a crucial lifeline. <\/p>\n

It won’t be easy, as 10th-ranked Belgium<\/a> has a host of world-class players, all capable of causing major issues for the All Whites. A New Zealand win would likely be one of the greatest upsets in the history of the tournament. <\/p>\n

Watch the All Whites vs Iran, live and free on TVNZ+<\/a> and TVNZ 1<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

(Andrew Cornaga\/www.photosport.nz\/Andrew Cornaga\/www.photosport.nz)<\/p>\n

“Lapses of concentration” were why his side isn’t already sitting comfortably, Bazeley said. They took the lead first in both of their previous group games but their rivals clawed back goals each time to deny New Zealand a first senior men’s FIFA World Cup win.<\/p>\n

“When you look at the Iran goals, you know, we played well the whole game, but got punished in those moments,” Bazeley said. “For us to beat Belgium, we can’t have that.” <\/p>\n

“We need to be flawless, immaculate in our whole performance throughout the whole game.” <\/p>\n

Bazeley said he and his staff were looking at options when asked about possible changes to the lineup<\/p>\n

\"Eli<\/p>\n

Eli Just (11) celebrates scoring against Iran (Source: Getty)<\/p>\n

“Do we freshen things up? Where do we freshen them? You know, whilst also holding on to the continuity, because we’ve done okay so far,” he said. <\/p>\n

Bazeley told his players tomorrow was an opportunity. <\/p>\n

“We’ve given ourselves the opportunity to win our last group game and qualify by having that point on the board,” he said. <\/p>\n

“We’d much rather be sat here with four or six points. That’s not the case, but we’re in the tournament. <\/p>\n

“Win our last game, we qualify. We came for knockout football, and it’s come around earlier. This is now knockout football.”<\/p>\n

\"Liberato<\/p>\n

Liberato Cacace challenges for the ball during the All Whites World Cup clash with Iran. (Source: Getty)<\/p>\n

Wing-back Liberato Cacace believed that if the All Whites could nullify Belgium’s biggest threats, “we’ll have a good chance of winning”. <\/p>\n

“We’re looking forward to the next game. You could say it’s a bit of a knockout game now for us \u2013 we’ve got to win, or we’ll be eliminated,” the Wrexham player said. <\/p>\n

“We’ve definitely shown this tournament that we can compete with the bigger teams in the World Cup. So what we’ve got to do is put on a 90-minute performance, and we’ll have a chance of winning.” <\/p>\n

Watch all matches at the World Cup with an event pass on TVNZ+<\/a> | All Whites games free-to-view on TVNZ1 and TVNZ+<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"All Whites head coach Darren Bazeley says his team must be “flawless” if they are to beat Belgium…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":497128,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[2965,2966,111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-497127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-all-whites","tag-fifa-world-cup","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=497127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/497128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=497127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=497127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=497127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}