The spoiler. Brazil and their best-laid plans left in Marouane Fellaini's wake

By Joe Callaghan

The onion domes of the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood were just about the only things bringing colour to Monday morning in St Petersburg.

Speckled in topaz and jasper and mountain crystal, the five bulbous tops struck a stark contrast as they pushed up to pierce grey, watery skies.

After so much of the weekend’s drama was played out in sun-kissed, sweltering stadiums across the eastern and southern fringes of this World Cup, the 13-degree overcast morning that greeted arrivals into Russia’s second city yesterday was jarring.

As French and Belgian fans took their sweet time getting here for tonight’s semi-final, it was left to those who maybe didn’t even want to be here to keep the market vendors ticking over.

Brazilians were the most easily identifiable among the throngs outside St Petersburg’s biggest tourist attraction — a Russian revivalist masterpiece built in tribute to Emperor Alexander II on the site of his murder. Their team are already back home. But a group of friends from Sao Paulo via Miami explained simply that they had match tickets and train tickets and so…they stuck to the plan.

That’s the thing about World Cups, and this World Cup more than any before — you can plan for plenty but something will get in the way. They had travelled to Samara in expectation. But they couldn’t have planned for Thiago Silva finding the post rather than the net from two yards out.

They couldn’t have planned for Fernandinho turning the ball past Alisson soon after. They couldn’t have planned for the VAR team being unable to spot what seemed a penalty as Brazil’s second-half fightback gathered pace. They couldn’t have planned for 16 shots at Thibaut Courtois yielding just one goal.

There was one other thing they couldn’t have planned for.

“Marouane fucking Fellaini,” said one of the Brazilians, his friends nodding solemnly in agreement.

Three words that have often found each other for company in recent years of supporters’ discourse, usually delivered in that order as though they make up a punchline. This time they were delivered with a Miami rather than Mancunian twang — and in a very different tone. There was exasperation in the words but mostly respect.

There was a little bit of wonder thrown in for good measure.

Marouane fucking Fellaini. The spoiler. Brazil and best-laid plans left in his wake.

Of all the unlikely events at this most unlikely World Cup, the Manchester United midfielder dropping into the heat of the marquee quarter-final match-up and turning in a man of the match performance against the favourites may shape as the most unlikely of all.

Fellaini was immense in Samara, omnipresent and at times omnipotent, shutting down Neymar on the left flank and doing almost as good a job on Philippe Coutinho a little further in. Kevin De Bruyne had been named Fifa’s man of the match and though he was stellar, Fellaini had risen above even him.

The 30-year-old won twice as many aerial duels as anyone on the field. But we’ve come to expect that. Even on the days when he has acutely frustrated the masses at Old Trafford, Fellaini has at least dominated the airspace. It was in so many other spaces that he excelled against Brazil.

He had the most blocks in the game and the most clearances outside of Belgium’s two centre-backs. But he didn’t just spray the clearances anywhere, he was precise in helping Belgium break out, boasting a better pass completion rate than playmaker supreme Eden Hazard.

He had earned his starting place having dragged Belgium back from the brink in the last 16, sprung from the bench by Roberto Martinez to spark something, anything. Fellaini did that and more, terrorising Japan in the air and grabbing the equaliser. For good measure, he’d arguably been the most effective player on the pitch in the final group game against England too.

What to make of this turn of events? For some they’re surprising but for many they’re surprisingly unsurprising. Fellaini has always been something of a coach’s player, a team-mate’s player but not as often a favourite of fan or pundit. Jose Mourinho was elated to sign him to a new deal at Old Trafford last month. Some of the locals, less so.

“I think he is player you have to work with to appreciate what he really brings,” Martinez has said of him.

“I think he gets underestimated in his technical ability. He is a footballer that has got a level of technical control a lot higher than people think.”

In Martinez, Fellaini finds a soul mate, a man more often lampooned than lauded. Here in Russia, clear definition and direction has been rewarded with brilliant execution from Fellaini. Martinez tasked him with specific but very different jobs in back-to-back games and watched as his player delivered in spades.

Tonight in Saint Petersburg he’ll likely be tasked with a similar job to last time — shield and spoil. Kylian Mbappe could be his brief, keeping a watch on clubmate Paul Pogba from deep too. What’s clear is that Martinez trusts him deeply. He needs him too. As much as they’ve purred in attack, Belgium had been too porous, leaking two goals to Tunisia before they’d ever dug that hole against Japan. As the stakes were raised, it came time to tighten.

“They played a great game against Brazil with a very specific plan,” observed Deschamps yesterday. “The biggest difference up until that is the Belgian team is geared forward. But against Brazil, they intensified the midfield in order to block the central access and wide [access]. That was deliberate.”

So too was Fellaini, who turned 30 in November and is maturing in more than just age. He continues to ascend Belgium’s all-time appearances list, passing out icons with each game. Today he’ll win cap 87 and climb into sixth on the table. At this World Cup alone, he has overtaken Enzo Scifo, Frankie Van Der Elst and Eric Gerets. With greater experience, a more sensible approach has bloomed.

Last season was Fellaini’s 10th in English football. In the previous nine years, he racked up 80 yellows and five red cards for club and country across 347 appearances, an average of a booking every four games. In this injury-interrupted year, he has played 29 times for United and Belgium but booked just once.

More sensible then and a little more subtle too. One of his most telling interventions in Samara was striking in its delicacy. As Coutinho bore down in the second half, Fellaini ghosted in and with a flick rather than a thud lifted the ball away from the Barcelona man’s toes. It was there, then it wasn’t, Fellaini striding forward and sparking a counter.

Fellaini has argued he has been singled out for harsh refereeing and harsher verdicts from the stands because a false reputation precedes him.

He has even suggested his hairstyle, by making him so identifiable, gets him in undue trouble. In an interview with GQ Style earlier this year when he debuted a range of new dos, he again touched on this.

“It think it’s easy for them to portray me as an aggressive player but I’m not,” he insisted.

“I try to play my game, I try my best to recover the ball quickly: That’s my job. Try to be better all the time.”

At this most opportune time, Marouane fucking Fellaini is backing up those words — and the expletive too.

Fellaini has French form

While Belgium and France haven’t played a competitive fixture since the third-place playoff at the World Cup in Mexico in 1986, the sides did meet in a friendly in Paris less than three years ago.

In an action-packed game, it was the visitors who triumphed 4-3 thanks to two goals and an assist from Marouane Fellaini. The midfielder soared above Raphael Varane for one set-piece header that should serve as a timely for Didier Deschamps and his side tonight.