Football
2016 European Championship Qualifying, Group Stage 2016
CYP 
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FT
 BEL
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PA Sport 9y

Eden Hazard's late goal helps Belgium to 1-0 win vs. Cyprus

Belgium laboured to a late 1-0 win over Cyprus to keep both qualification slots open in Group B.

Anything other than three points for the Europeans would have guaranteed leaders Wales passage through to the Euro 2016 finals and for a long time the Cypriots looked like doing Chris Coleman's men a huge favour.

However, Chelsea's Eden Hazard struck four minutes from time to ensure the outcome of the group will not be decided until the final round of matches next month.

It was a less-than-convincing performance from last year's World Cup quarterfinalists, as Cyprus more than held their own for long periods.

The island nation have lost eight and drawn one of their nine competitive meetings with Belgium, but the one-sidedness of that record was not evident as Cyprus comfortably kept their opponents at bay.

In the first half Radja Nainggolan and Kevin De Bruyne, who was involved in most of the attacking play, both had chances to open the scoring while Constantinos Makridis had the hosts' best chance only to screw wide a left-footed shot wide after cutting in from the right.

Half-time saw Belgian coach Marc Wilmots replace Liverpool's £32.5million summer signing Christian Benteke with club-mate Divock Origi, but it did little to add much sharpness to the attack.

Midway through the second half Nainggolan wasted another chance when he opted to shoot himself despite having teammates in support after they countered from a Cyprus corner.

Thomas Vermaelen flashed a header wide from a corner while Vincent Laban floated a decent chance wide for the hosts but the breakthrough finally came in the 86th minute when De Bruyne's crossfield pass from the halfway line released substitute Dries Mertens down the right and he crossed for Hazard to slot home.

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