Brussels attacks: Belgium move friendly to Portugal

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The Place de la Bourse has become a makeshift memorial to the victimsImage source, AFP
Image caption,

The Place de la Bourse has become a makeshift memorial to the victims of Tuesday's explosions

Belgium's friendly against Portugal next week has been moved from Brussels to the Portuguese city of Leiria after more than 30 people were killed in attacks in the Belgian capital.

The match was called off for security reasons before Portugal's football association offered a alternate venue.

The Belgium team will train at the King Baudouin Stadium, where the match was originally to be staged, on Wednesday.

The game will be played next Tuesday (19:45 GMT), as initially scheduled.

Captain Vincent Kompany was "horrified and revolted" by the incidents.

"I wish for Brussels to act with dignity," he wrote on Twitter. , external"We are all hurting, yet we must reject hate and its preachers. As hard as it may be."

Next week's match is the second Belgium friendly in succession that has not gone ahead as scheduled.

In November, their match against Spain in Brussels was called off following the Paris atrocities, which killed 130 people.

Meanwhile, the Netherlands will play France in Amsterdam - 108 miles away from Brussels - as planned on Friday.

More about the attacks

This week's round of international friendlies are warm-up games before Euro 2016 in France.

The tournament starts on 10 June and features 24 teams, playing 51 matches at 10 venues across the country.

The Stade de France was one of the targets in the November terror attacks on the French capital.

Media caption,

Blast heard during Paris football match

Uefa said it would continue to "monitor the level of risk for the tournament" but added there were "no plans to play matches behind closed doors".

Wales manager Chris Coleman,, external whose side are making their European Championship debut, said it should go ahead as planned.

"It's such a huge event, everybody wants to see it, not just countries involved," he said.

"Football is the biggest sport in the world, everyone wants to see it and it would be robbing people of what they love."

Martin Kallen, Uefa operations director, told BBC Sport that fan zones around the tournament - where large numbers of football supporters gather to watch games on large screens - will still be set up.

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