Belgium are considered one of the favourites to win Euro 2016 in France this month and considering that they have a host of what are now household names in their squad playing across some of the best leagues in Europe it is no wonder. Eleven of their 23 man squad play in the English Premier League, and it will soon be twelve given Radja Nainggolan’s strong Chelsea link. By the end of the transfer window there is a high probability of it being more than twelve.
This period of Belgian football is in effect their “Golden Generation” and England fans will be all too familiar with that turn of phrase, having succumbed to a decade or more of disappointment from their own similarly-labelled squads at tournament finals. Indeed, Belgium were equally fancied to do well at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, but failed to live up to expectation losing to eventual finalists Argentina at the Quarter-Final stage.
This is only the fifth time that Belgium have qualified for the Euro Finals since 1964 and one of their qualifications happened to be because they were joint hosts. A poor showing in reality. However, their best previous performance was as runners up in 1980. It will be interesting to see if Belgium will be able to cope with the weight of expectation on their shoulders.
Currently priced at 11/1 behind host favourites France, as well as Spain and Germany it may be that Belgium are the value bet of the tournament for the moment.
Belgium Preview:
Qualifying
Belgium won Qualifying Group B relatively easily by winning seven and losing just one of their ten qualifying games. Their only defeat came in the away fixture in Wales by one goal to nil, the team whom they also failed to beat in the reverse fixture as they drew 0-0 in Belgium.
Their home form was extremely impressive. They scored 17 goals, although 11 of these came against footballing minnows Cyprus (5-0), and Andorra (6-0). Away from home, however, whilst they scored another 4 against Andorra, they only managed solitary goals in each of the games against Cyprus, Israel and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Even though they only beat Wales into second place by just two points, qualification was relatively routine for the Belgians from what was generally perceived as an easy group from which to qualify. Without question the finals in France will prove more demanding for them.
Team Play
What was significant about their play in qualification is that even though they have some of the best strikers in European football at their disposal in Christian Benteke, Michy Batshuayi and Romelu Lukaku, their top scorers were attacking midfielders. Eden Hazard and Kevin De Bruyne scored five goals each, whilst Marouane Fellaini chipped in with four more. This is indicative of their fluid and interchangeable play as they look to encourage attacking players to get beyond the striker.
Discipline should not be an issue as amazingly during qualifying the Belgians only incurred two yellow cards, and they were both to Vincent Kompany in the same match away to Israel in March 2015. This meant that Kompany had to miss the next game against Wales in Cardiff the following June and it is no doubt more than a mere coincidence that this was Belgium’s only defeat in qualifying. Kompany will be missing again in Euro 2016 due to injury.
Whilst their attacking options and flair will be what fans are looking forward to seeing the most in France, it is in defence where Belgium will have the most challenges. Head Coach Marc Wilmots has a ready made central defensive partnership at his disposal in Toby Alderweireld and Jan Vertonghen who have been instrumental together in Tottenham Hotspur’s excellent season in England. However it seems that his preference is to use these players at full back and use Thomas Vermaelen as one of the two main centre backs. He just needs to find the right partner for Vermaelen having tried both Alderweireld and Jason Denayer in recent friendlies.
With Belgium adopting a 4-2-3-1 playing style then two holding midfielders should offer some protection for the central defensive pairing and so the problem may not be that bad for them. When all is said and done about Belgium’s defensive play they did only concede five goals in qualifying and boast one of the most promising young goalkeepers in football in Thibaut Courtois.
Key Players
The key players for them will be their captain Eden Hazard and also Kevin De Bruyne. Hazard has had a largely indifferent season for his league club Chelsea but he has recently come to life in the last few games of the season. The resurgence in his form could be quite timely for the national team.
De Bruyne on the other hand has been a shining light for Manchester City and has been at the forefront of everything that has been good about their play in the English Premier League. City are a far more dangerous proposition with De Bruyne in the side as was proven when he had a spell out with injury. They were not the same team without him and the same can be said about Vincent Kompany’s absence for Manchester City in fact. Something the Belgians now have to deal with.
De Bruyne’s fitness will be telling as his spell out of the game would mean that he may still feel fresher than other players. With De Bruyne and Hazard being Belgium’s top scorers in qualifying then this in itself would substantiate their importance to the team.
Hazard would have to be careful though not to fall into the same trap as that of the World Cup in Brazil 2014 where he was largely marked out of many games and Belgium missed his creativity. Should this happen again then it may be an opportunity for other players to step up.
Belgium’s Prospects
Coming in to the tournament Belgium have played friendlies against Switzerland and Finland and have one more to play against Norway. Performances have been less than convincing especially as they needed a late goal from Romelu Lukaku to secure a draw with Finland in their most recent game.
Their group in France sees them compete against Italy, Sweden and Republic of Ireland which on paper looks like a very difficult group. However, if Belgium come into the tournament with a convincing display against Norway in their last friendly and with their defensive conundrum solved, then they should have enough to win the group. Ireland needed the play-offs to secure their spot in France, and are lacking in world-class players, whilst Italy seem to be in some turmoil currently with fans unhappy with the soon-to-be-departed Antonio Conte’s squad selection. Sweden on the other hand will be heavily reliant as ever on Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
If Belgium do indeed win Group E then the run to the semi-final at least should be achievable given how the draw could pan out for them, and once at the semi-final then anything could be possible for The Red Devils.
