by Samuel A. December 2, 2022
The Belgium National team and Football Federation will be in severe pain after their shocking early exit. This is not because they went out early, but mainly because it’s possibly the end of their “Golden Generation” era as many of their players are at the verge of retirement. Let’s be frank, The Red Devils never seemed to hit the ground running at this edition of the World Cup, many performances were below par and not what we had expected from a team that went to the final four in the 2018 edition.
Belgium’s nightmare started with a narrow 1-0 win over Canada. It was a fast, end to end game that saw a weak and rather sloppy Belgian side, conceding 22 shots and a penalty which was saved by Courtois, who was the only outstanding player in their campaign. Going into the next game, Kevin De Bruyne was asked if the Belgium squad was still capable of edging out a world cup victory. His words were “No chance, we’re too old. I think our chance was 2018. We have a good team, but it is aging. We lost some key players. We have some good new players coming, but they are not at the level other players were in 2018. I see us more as outsiders.” These words caused a rift between quite a number of Belgian players, dismantling their unity and team spirit. They went on to lose against unlikely underdogs, Morocco. Two late strikes from Sabiri and Zakaria Aboukhlal secured a 2-0 win for Morocco and put the Belgian team’s hope for a last 16 qualification in jeopardy.
It all ended in a match against Croatia where it was all on the line and they had to give it their all to qualify. They looked very blunt and lacked urgency in the final third at the beginning, which prompted them to bring on Romelu Lukaku to change the situation of the game. Lukaku, through all his efforts did, but not the way the Belgian supporters would have wanted. He smashed one against the post when the ball dropped kindly to him after an area of tussles. As if that wasn’t enough, he went on to miss a header into an empty net to give his nation the lead. He had his hands above his head, just like every other person behind Belgium in that match. Another unbelievable miss came in the 90th minute from Thorgan Hazard’s cross, where he misjudged the flight of the ball and controlled it into the clutches of the Croatian goalie, Livakovic. His disaster class put Belgium on top of the stat sheet for the most big chances missed. He was consoled by Belgium assistant manager Thierry Henry after the game. Belgium finished third in the 2018 showpiece but were sent home early from Qatar, with their ‘Golden Generation’ era officially over. It was reported that the players got into it in the dressing room after the Morocco loss so you have to wonder what the atmosphere will be like in their next international break.
