Belgium win keeps hopes alive

Belgium kept their hopes of progressing to the UEFA EURO 2012 finals alive after a convincing win over ten-man Kazakhstan at the Roi Baudouin in Brussels. A Timmy Simons penalty and strikes by Eden Hazard and Vincent Kompany put the home side in control before Vitaly Yevstigneev's late own goal gave Belgium a 4-0 lead. Kairat Nurdauletov's late penalty was scant consolation for the visitors, who had Nurtas Kurgulin sent off for violent conduct after a foul on Dries Mertens in the 58th minute. The result means Belgium moved into second place in Group A after play-off rivals Turkey slipped up against leaders Germany and fell to third, one point behind Belgium who are now on 15 points. Kazakhstan remain bottom of the group with no chance of qualification. The home side began to dominate from the kick-off, with defender Kompany heading Mertens' inswinging corner over the bar from close range in the seventh minute after Hazard saw his corner cleared by Alexandr Kirov seconds earlier. However, despite their dominance, Belgium had to wait until the 41st minute to take the lead when Andrei Karpovich's foul on Axel Witsel gave the hosts a penalty. Simons stepped up and beat Vladimir Loginovskiy with a strike to the bottom right corner. Hazard then doubled the lead two minutes later with a shot from close range after he latched onto Mertens' pass. Manchester City defender Kompany added a third four minutes into the second half when he prodded home Igor De Camargo's corner from inside the six-yard box. An 83rd-minute own-goal by Kazakhstan striker Yevstigneev added insult to injury for the visitors before Nurdauletov added a consolation goal from the spot three minutes later after Laurent Ciman fouled Sergey Ostapenko in the area.