Rangers midfielder Nico Raskin has been tipped to keep two Aston Villa stars out of the Belgium side after his 'pit bull'-like display in Sunday night's Nations League win over Ukraine.
The 24-year-old’s commanding showing in midfield earned him a standing ovation at full time of the 3-0 victory on his full international debut.
And the media in Raskin’s homeland have come together in unanimous praise for the Rangers star after an impressive first start for the Red Devils in Genk.
Voetbal Nieuws hailed Raskin’s ‘doggedness’ and praised head coach Rudi Garcia for ‘discovering’ the midfielder.
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“He has that doggedness that the Belgian fans like to see. He was very strong as a breaker, positionally he was good and his passing was also solid to good. A discovery of the national coach at international level.”
It was Garcia's first international squad since replacing Domenico Tedesco as manager in January.
Sporza hailed Raskin for his energy and ‘pit bull’-like qualities:
”Nicolas Raskin was the discovery. After 5 minutes he was already unjustly shown a yellow card in his position. That’s very annoying, but what an energetic pit bull he is with good feet.”
Nieuwsblad aimed a dig at former Italian-German boss Domenico Tedesco - who never called Raskin up to the national side – with the headline “Hello Domenico? How Nicolas Raskin proved Tedesco wrong on his first-team debut.”
Nico Raskin tipped to keep £90m Aston Villa duo out of Belgium team
There are now calls for Raskin to retain his spot in Garcia’s starting XI, despite being initially drafted in due to absences elsewhere.
£50M Aston Villa midfielder Amadou Onana was kept out of this month’s squad by a hamstring injury, while Youri Tielemans was suspended for Sunday’s quarter-final second leg after picking up a yellow card against Ukraine on Thursday.
Before Tielemans joined Villa at the end of his Leicester City contract, the Foxes paid AS Monaco £40M for the midfielder in July 2019.
RTBF commented: “Nicolas Raskin was fantastic for his debut. If there’s one player who scored points today in the eyes of Rudi Garcia and his staff, it was him... [He] has the ability to play forward and build the game. I can’t see how Rudi Garcia could do without him in the next match.”
