Their reward for winning the group is a round of 32 match-up against one of the eight best third-placed teams.

Coach Rudi Garcia’s decision to bench Romelu Lukaku and place his trust in Leandro Trossard opened up ​different angles and opportunities for De Bruyne, but by the final whistle, all three ​were on the scoresheet.

“They are so wonderful for a nation as ours, and ⁠they delivered tonight, Leandro, De Bruyne, Lukaku —this is what the so-called ‘oldies’ did tonight,” Garcia ​told reporters.

“We haven’t won anything yet, but we moved on to the next phase.”

No one had ​a bigger influence on the game than De Bruyne, who played his part in Trossard’s two goals and netted Belgium’s third in a superb individual display.

The Belgians attacked relentlessly from the first whistle and had already had ​a penalty decision overturned after a VAR check when De Bruyne floated in a corner that ​bounced off a defender and fell for Trossard to steer home.

He then set up Trossard for his second ‌with ⁠a superb pass in the second half.

De Bruyne’s dizzying array of passes left the New Zealand defence chasing shadows for much of the game, and though he wasted a number of decent chances, he finally got his goal in the 66th minute.

Trossard poked the ball into his path before ​being felled on the ​edge of the box, ⁠and De Bruyne took a touch before rifling a low left-foot shot into the far corner and wheeling away in celebration.

Lukaku made it 4-1 ​soon after coming off the bench, making himself and De Bruyne ​the first Belgians ⁠to score at three World Cups, and fellow substitute Alexis Saelemaekers added a fifth in stoppage time.

“We’re just really happy with everyone. I think we have such a good group at the moment,” ⁠Trossard said.

“Everyone ​is important, you can see today as well - the ​players coming from the bench, they are involved with goals and assists as well, so, yeah, we have to just keep ​on going and continue that into the next game.”