before France-Belgium, the Devils doubt – Libération

Euro Football 2024fileBooed by their own supporters after their poor performance against Ukraine (0-0), the Belgians have missed their start to the competition. A bit like the Blues, who they face in the round of 16, this Monday, July 1 in Düsseldorf.

For a qualification for the round of 16 of the Euro, we had known a more euphoric crowd. On the pitch of the MHP Arena in Stuttgart, Wednesday June 26, the boos of the Belgian supporters accompanied the last touches of the ball of their protégés, who were nevertheless preparing to validate their ticket for the rest of the competition thanks to their draw against Ukraine (0-0). At the final whistle, the booing in the stands of the steel enclosure was such that the Belgian captain, Kevin de Bruyne, gave up on going to greet the crowd and told his teammates to go back to the locker room with him. Not really euphoric, then. It’s because the supporters do not forgive the Red Devils for the poor performance and the weak choices of the coach Domenico Tedesco, who only needed a draw to qualify, but a victory to grab first place and inherit a theoretically more affordable opponent in the next round.

The Belgian team that is facing France this Monday, July 1st in Düsseldorf (6 p.m.) is a team plagued by doubt and tension. While its group could be considered the weakest in the competition, it missed out on its first round, with a victory against Romania (2-0), but also an unexpected defeat against Slovakia (0-1), a few days earlier. Its designated scorer, the powerful striker Romelu Lukaku, has so far remained silent, clumsy and unlucky (he actually scored three goals, all disallowed by the video referee), and is the focus of mockery. Even though he scored against Romania, midfielder Kevin De Bruyne is playing below his standard level, he who is one of the best players on the planet at his club Manchester City. As for Domenico Tedesco, a young (38 years old) and little-known Italo-German, he is going down increasingly badly across the border.

“The mood is not good”

Thursday, the day after the Stuttgart “match parody” (said the daily newspaper Le Soir), defender Thomas Meunier told journalists of his disappointment with the attitude of his supporters. “Driving six hours to come and insult the players, I don’t think that’s a goal. […] “I find it a shame that the reactions are a bit disproportionate. The obscene gestures, the insults on social networks, it’s gone too far,” the former Paris Saint-Germain player lamented.

“Clearly, the atmosphere is not good,” comments journalist Florent Malice, editor-in-chief of the Walloon site Walfoot. Part of the press, notably the Dutch-speaking press which is more critical, is already ready to take out the knives against Domenico Tedesco in the event of elimination against France. On the side of the supporters, there was a very emotional reaction. Fans were afraid to relive the trauma of 2022.”

That year, in Qatar, the Red Devils had left the World Cup in the first round, with their heads bowed. In Stuttgart, a single Ukrainian goal would have condemned Romelu Lukaku’s teammates to the same fate, and the whole country held its breath when Ruslan Malinovskyi dared, ten minutes from the end, an improbable direct corner, pushed back in extremis by goalkeeper Koen Casteels. But Belgium held firm, they remain in the race and can still dream of a trip to Euro 2024. That’s football: if all is not lost, everything is possible. And everything happens very quickly.

France-Belgium, historical classic

Before missing their start to the competition, the Red Devils had managed an almost perfect qualifying phase: six wins, two draws, no defeats (and again: the draw against Sweden had been ratified by UEFA while the match did not come to fruition, due to an attack against Scandinavian supporters in Brussels on October 16). Arriving at the head of the selection at the start of 2023, Domenico Tedesco had developed a fast and vertical style and rejuvenated a team orphaned by Eden Hazard, idol of Belgian football who had retired internationally. “We are at a moment of transition, with a generation that is only just getting established. As a result, here, no one expects to win Euro 2024. We are more thinking about the next World Cup, or Euro 2028,” underlines Florent Malice.

Before that, there is a Euro round of 16 to play against the French team, “an ideal opponent”, according to the journalist, as the rivalry between the two neighbors is conducive to general mobilization and sacred union around the national team. This France-Belgium will be the seventy-sixth of its kind in one hundred and twenty years of football history, and no one has forgotten the seventy-fourth, a victory by the Blues in the World Cup semi-final on an evening in July 2018 in Saint Petersburg, which had fueled resentment on one side of the border and endless jokes on the other. In Belgium, people are probably saying that a victory in the form of revenge against Kylian Mbappé’s gang, themselves not exactly dashing, would reconcile everyone. “We can challenge the best teams. We are ready,” promised Domenico Tedesco.