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Belgium sack coach Wilmots after Euros disappointment

Belgium sack coach Wilmots after Euros disappointment

BRUSSELS, July 15 (Reuters) - Belgium sacked national coach Marc Wilmots after their highly fancied team of star individuals failed to advance beyond the quarter-finals at Euro 2016 this month, a senior Belgian Football Association official told a news conference on Friday. The former Schalke midfielder, 47, had coached the Red Devils for four years, taking them to the quarter-finals of the World Cup in 2014 and seeing them top FIFA's world ranking chart with a team built around Chelsea's Eden Hazard and Manchester City pair Vincent Kompany and Kevin De Bruyne. But a clueless 3-1 defeat to Wales in the Euro 2016 quarters left critics calling for Wilmots' head and Belgian fans wondering what happened to the team that many had hoped would deliver the country's first major trophy. (Reporting by Alastair Macdonald; Editing by Angus MacSwan)