Sawt Falasteen - De Bruyne scores twice as Belgium beat Israel in Nations League

The victory left Belgium tied atop Group 2 in the top-tier League A with Italy who beat France by the same score.

The match, a Belgian home fixture, was moved after the city of Brussels deemed it "impossible to organise this very high-risk match" in the city due to tensions linked to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Other Belgian cities also refused to host the match.

De Bruyne gave Belgium a 21st minute lead. Jeremy Doku broke down the left and pulled the ball back to his unmarked Manchester City club-mate.

Israel levelled after 36 minutes when Timothy Castagne deflected a header powerfully off his own crossbar and into the net.

Youri Tielemans ran on to a flick from Lois Openda to put Belgium ahead again in the 48th minute.

Openda, starting after Romelu Lukaku asked to be left out of the Belgium squad, then drew a foul from Raz Shlomo to win a penalty that de Bruyne converted in the 56th minute.

Four minutes later, Openda won another penalty, drawing a foul from Sagiv Jehezkel.

Captain De Bruyne, who had never scored a hat-trick for Belgium, passed the ball to Openda but Yoav Gerafi saved the spot kick with his legs.

B.Mahmoud--SF-PST