2018 FIFA WORLD CUP PREVIEW – BELGIUM NATIONAL TEAM
Summary Of The Team
Belgium are currently experiencing the highest level of football they’ve ever produced with world class players such as Eden Hazard, De Bruyne, Mertens, Vertonghen and many. This is Belgium’s best chance to win the world cup they’ve ever had due to the fact that this golden generation are all in their primes with most of them coming into this world cup in fantastic form. Their coached by Roberto Martinez and they love playing attacking football, with little magicians such as Hazard and Mertens alongside one of the best passers in the world KDB and a great striker in Romelu Lukaku. These four danger men will cause a lot of problems for opposition defences and have the capabilities of breaking down any defence. Belgium really don’t have many weaknesses in their squad wherever you look, their back 3 is absolutely top class, they have a mix of strong and creative midfielders, the only negative might be their full backs they do lack depth there and they will most likely use Meunier and Carrasco as wing backs but other than that they’ve got a pretty flawless squad. The biggest controversy about their world cup squad is the exclusion of a top class midfielder Radja Nainggolan who was coming off of one of his best seasons of his career with Roma and instead of him players such as Witsel, Fellaini, Januzaj and a few others who you wouldn’t put in the squad before Nainggolan got selected and that made many people angry although everyone knows his relationship with the coach is damaged, surely Martinez could have put that aside and include one of his best players? It could be a costly mistake for sure.
Road To The Finals
Belgium had quite an easy qualifying campaign to the world cup. They were put in a group together with Greece, Bosnia, Estonia, Cyprus and Gibraltar. A group that they were expected to dominate and did it in a tremendous fashion. Belgium had two games where they scored 8+ goals including putting 9 past Gibraltar. Belgium were scoring for fun like they were expected to scoring a total of 43 goals (4.3 per game) and looked solid defensively conceding just 6, three of those coming in one game so other than that one game against Bosnia, they were very solid. Belgium beat teams by an average of 4 goals, they won 9, drew 1 and lost none. Only Greece really tested Belgium, the only team that managed to get a draw against them, other than that it was easy. Belgium picked up 28 out of 30 points. Belgium had a bunch of different players contributing to goals, Lukaku hit the net 11 times, Hazard scored 6, Mertens and Meunier added 5 although Meunier’s 3 game against Gibraltar, Benteke and Carrasco scored 3 each and then Witsel, Vertonghen, Chadli, Michy, Thorgan Hazard and Alderweireld scored 1 or 2 goals as well. To summarise it was an easy campaign where mainly everyone contributed with goals.
The History of Belgium’s National Team
The Belgium national football team has never won a major trophy, however they tend to qualify for the tournaments pretty often. Belgium have qualified for their 13th world cup this year and their greatest achievement has been in 1986 when they reached the semi finals, eventually losing to Argentina then finishing 4th . Belgium normally tend to get eliminated in the 1st or 2nd round if you look at their history. Belgium have had some great players over the years such as Jan Ceulemans, Marc Wilmots, but they never really had a generation of top quality players like now. They’ve never really been considered amongst footballs elite, people used to consider them as an average side who would normally qualify for the tournaments. In their world cup history Belgium have been eliminated in the 1st round 6 times, 2nd round 4 times, quarter finals once and reached 4th place once. It’s not a storied history like Brazil’s or Germany’s, but it’s better than most nations regardless and they’ll be looking to add their first major trophy this year.
Key Players:
Eden Hazard: Eden Hazard is by far Belgium’s most important player at this world cup. He’s the captain and the best player on the team and some would say he’s the best after Ronaldo and Messi. After an up and down season with Chelsea where he showed flashes of world class and some disappearance acts, Eden will have to be consistent for his nation to succeed. He’s easily their most creative player by being able to dribble the ball past opponents with ease and having a great ability of passing. A fun fact about Eden is that he’s created more chances than the likes of Ozil, De Bruyne and such in the premier league but his assist numbers are down because they get wasted by his teammates. Now by playing with guys like Mertens and Lukaku up front, surely Eden’s creativity won’t be wasted and they’ll score a tons of goals. Eden’s important will be huge for Belgium as a captain and a leader he’ll have to produce for them to go far. If he doesn’t show up then it’s curtains for Belgium.
Kevin de Bruyne: Kevin de Bruyne is Belgium’s 2nd best player, up there with Eden for the best player. KDB is coming off of his best season of his carer so far playing for Man City being a league champion being their most creative player. KDB finished with a career high 16 assists and he’ll be very important for Belgium in midfield creating chances for players like Hazard and Lukaku. With Nainggolan not being selected, the pressure will be all on Kevin De Bruyne to create from the midfield especially when his Midfield partner will likely be Fellaini or Witsel who are both defensive minded. KDB will have to basically run things for Belgium in the middle of the park. He’ll be especially important against lower opposition who will play defensive football, as he’s the type of player who can play a through ball or score from long range anytime to open up a defence.
Jan Vertonghen: Jan Vertonghen is one of Belgium’s defenders in the back 3 and I’m picking him as most important. After another great season with Spurs, he’s definitely solidified himself as one of the best CB’s in the world and he’s been the most consistent out of Belgium’s back 3 during the past few seasons due to no injuries and constantly putting in solid performances. Jan is actually the most capped Belgian player of all time, the only one with 100 caps for this national team which shows he’s the most experienced on the international level for his team. His experience and consistency will be very important for Belgium. I think he’s their best defender and his performances will be crucial in the later stages of the tournament when they come up against world class opposition.
Possibilities and Expectations
Belgium have been drawn in a group where they’re expected to come through easily. They’re in it with England, Panama and Tunisia. Really Belgium are the favorites here, followed closely by England. Panama and Tunisia are some of the worst teams in the tournament in general and that’s why people expect Belgium to come out of this group quite easily regardless of what happens against England. My honest opinion with this group would be that Belgium edges England out for the first place on goal difference because I think they’ll draw with England and beat the others by bigger margins due to more attacking talent.
Assuming Belgium advance past the group stages, they’d meet a team from Group H (Colombia, Poland, Senegal or Japan). It’s a group that is mixed with a bunch of similar level teams so it’s hard to really predict who would Belgium face. Really Colombia is the only one that stands out and In my opinion will win their group. I think Belgium will face either Poland or Senegal, but I don’t want to count out the other possibilities. Belgium are definitely better than any of the teams mentioned from Group H so regardless of who’d they face, anyone would expect them to win that matchup and I agree with that. The Quarter Finals would be where Belgium would struggle because it’s quite likely that they could run into Brazil. Belgium have had their struggles in the quarters during this era being bounced out in the quarters in the world cup 4 years ago and the euros 2 years ago. I do believe Belgium have the team to go as far as possible, but if they do run into Brazil I think they’d lose. Personally I’d predict Belgium to be knocked out in the Quarters or Semis in this world cup. If you’re looking for long term bets then I’d recommend Belgium being eliminated either at the quarters with odds 2.87 or Semi Finals at 5.50. Odds based on WilliamHill.
Belgium’s Preliminary Squad: 5 Players will be cut
Koen Casteels, Thibaut Courtois, Simon Mignolet, Matz Sels; Toby Alderweireld, Dedryck Boyata, Laurent Ciman, Christian Kabasele, Vincent Kompany, Jordan Lukaku, Thomas Meunier, Thomas Vermaelen, Jan Vertonghen; Nacer Chadli, Kevin De Bruyne, Mousa Dembele, Leander Dendoncker, Marouane Fellaini, Youri Tielemans, Axel Witsel; Michy Batshuayi, Christian Benteke, Yannick Carrasco, Eden Hazard, Thorgan Hazard, Adnan Januzaj, Romelu Lukaku, Dries Mertens.
Expected Starting Lineup
Courtois
Vertonghen Alderweireld Kompany
Meunier Witsel De Bruyne Carrasco
Mertens Lukaku Hazard
Belgium’s Schedule: UK TIME
18/06/2018 – vs Panama 4 PM
23/06/2018 – vs Tunisia 1 PM
28/06/2018 - vs England 7 PM
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