Courtois blasts France for playing 'anti-football' in win over Belgium

Belgium goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois isn't hiding his frustration with France's style of play after the Red Devils lost 1-0 to Les Bleus in Tuesday's World Cup semi-final.

Courtois took offence with the French squad's response to taking the lead on Samuel Umtiti's 51st-minute goal, accusing Didier Deschamps' side of sitting deep rather than trying to strengthen its advantage.

"France heads a corner and does nothing more than defend," Courtois told Belgian network Sporza, courtesy of the Guardian. "I would have preferred to have lost in the quarter-finals to Brazil, at least that was a team that wanted to play football.

"(France) are just an anti-football team."

After falling behind, Roberto Martinez's men failed to crack France's defensive approach despite boasting 64 percent possession to Les Bleus' 36 throughout the contest. To exacerbate frustrations, French phenom Kylian Mbappe was booked in the 92nd minute for dribbling the ball away from Belgian players after conceding a throw-in in an obvious attempt to stall for time.

However, Les Bleus out-shot Belgium 19-9, and six of those attempts were blocked by defenders before they could even trouble Courtois.

Courtois' fellow countryman and Chelsea teammate Eden Hazard also expressed his displeasure with how their semi-final opponents guarded their lead. Despite the loss, the Belgium captain complimented France's defensive cohesiveness.

"I prefer to lose with this Belgium than win with this France. But they do defend strongly and are very efficient," Hazard told Belgian newspaper Het Nieuwsblad. "We have not found their weak point.

"That little moment of magic needed to score was not there."