“This time, it’s Belgium’s turn”, “be careful with the team that the Belgian national team is fielding at this World Cup”, “watch out because it seems that this year it will be their turn to win because two brutal generations have come together”… and so the ‘diables rouges’ have been waiting for a decade for the moment to sink their teeth into a major tournament.
Since 2014, Belgium has been competing in European Championships and World Cups with a team of top stars, but it has always lacked that final step. What differentiates a winning team from a hopeful? In the end, that was the Belgian team: a perennial hopeful.
De Bruyne, Hazard, Lukaku, Mertens, Vertonghen, Witsel… They have all played together at the same time, forming a team that, by name, was destined to compete against anyone. Others like Kompany, Fellaini, Carrasco and Tielemans were added to this list. offering Belgium players capable of deciding matches and with the mentality to perform in any scenario.
Third in the World Cup in Russia
However, the reality is what it is. Apart from the third place at the 2018 World Cup in Russia, Belgium has not even managed to get past the quarter-finals in any of the European Championships and World Cups played to date in the last ten years. At the World Cup in Brazil they were eliminated in the quarterfinals, and last year in Qatar they were not even able to get past the group stage. At the European Championships, it was more or less the same.
In 2016 and 2020, they barely made it to the quarter-finals, and now, in 2024, they have not even managed to get past the last 16. It is true that they have faced France, one of the favourites for the title, but that does not prevent the elimination from hurting again, and a lot, on Belgian soil. Another missed opportunity to go very far with the last remnants of the ‘golden generation’. A generation that will be very difficult to repeat, no matter how much Tedesco insists on saying otherwise.
“Some of their players have retired, but our Golden Generation will never end because we are already building something new with new guys”said the current Belgian coach. There are new boys, but they will bear little or no resemblance to De Bruyne, Hazard and company. Without a doubt, Belgium’s farewell to Germany at the first opportunity means farewell to, possibly, the last title opportunity for this generation that was destined to do something in international football. There was plenty of talent, but there was a lack of determination. We will see if De Bruyne and Lukaku continue.
2024-07-01 19:08:02
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