Sport
Aging Belgium must make it count at European Championship
It was a sunny afternoon at Wembley in early June 2012. Optimism was in the air and shoots of excitement were growing. England were playing Belgium in a European Championship warm up game but only one of them would actually be going to the tournament. It wasn’t the team who had cause to expect something big to change for the better, either.
England were reeling, even if they didn’t show it on the day. Roy Hodgson secured a second successive win since replacing Fabio Capello as manager, after the Italian quit inexplicably just weeks earlier. Capello was far from popular with fans and, as it turns out, downright disliked by many of the players, but there was as sense of what could be with him at the helm, two years on from a disastrous World Cup campaign in South Africa.
Hodgson’s appointment was as much a shock as Capello’s exit. There were those who had wanted, and expected, Harry Redknapp to be appointed. The mood was tempestuous and sense of the unknown about the future engulfed the arena.
That was true for the opposition, too, but in a much more positive sense. Marc Wilmots’ Belgium side had finished third in qualifying for the 2012 European Championship behind Germany and Turkey, winning just four out of 10 matches. At the time, that was par for the course, but no England fan headed to the national stadium that day expecting a walkover.
Belgium were hardly a footballing powerhouse and yet there was an emerging conveyor belt of talent which would change all that within the next decade, led by Eden Hazard. The 21-year-old was Chelsea bound, after the newly-crowned European champions won the race to prise him away from Lille.
The 1-0 scoreline proved everything that was predicted. England’s experience told but Belgium had shown more than enough to suggest an upward trajectory in the ensuing years. Hazard would be joined by the likes of Romelu Lukaku, Kevin de Bruyne and Thibaut Courtois, not only in Belgium’s greatest ever team but one of Europe’s and the world’s finest, too.
It is nine years later and Belgium are at a crossroads. The likes of Hazard and de Bruyne, who is heading into the delayed Euro 2020 injured, are approaching their final tournament in their peak ages. Hazard, who has endured an injury and poor form-hit spell at Real Madrid since 2019, is potentially now past his best.
Belgium are coming towards the end of their ‘Golden Generation’ without winning a trophy. Perhaps, considering the middling status which preceded it, it is harsh to expect anything different but the nation as a whole can see a difficult situation on the horizon. If they are to continue challenging for major tournaments and avoid failing to qualify for them again, the conveyor belt must keep producing.
The World Cup in 2014, their first as a genuine force, showed promise with a quarter-final appearance in Brazil. Argentina edged past them 1-0 but again, it was close. Two years later, at Euro 2016, falling at the same stage to Wales was not greeted with the same understanding and third place at the World Cup in Russia felt like the peak for the team which had the same spine throughout. In a number of ways, this feels like a last hurrah.
Even without de Bruyne, Hazard et al, it is unlikely that Belgium will return to the depths of their previous mediocrity. But Spain, England, France and Germany have all found out just how difficult it is to maintain a certain level after losing a group of talented players at a similar time. Belgium may have talented young players emerging and Lukaku, as well as Youri Tielemans, are just two examples of key names who still have much more to give.
However, losing Hazard and de Bruyne at the same time, as they likely will at some point down the line, will be a bitter blow. Jan Vertonghen, Thomas Vermaelen and Toby Alderwiereld are also likely to wind down their intensional careers at the same time and will leave huge voids in the side. Axel Witsel, Yannick Carassco, Michy Batshuayi and Christian Benteke are all either in their late 20s or early 30s; the list goes on.
This summer, more than any other, Belgium can no longer be called dark horses for the European Championship. They are not an outside bet but their squad is littered with ageing stars and the next generation is yet to make the sort of mark this one did 10 years ago or so. It is up for debate whether they have lived up to the hype, in international football especially, the bar for success cannot be set at silverware because there are so few opportunities to obtain it.
But it feels like Euro 2020 is now or never for the Red Devils. Their last chance, with this squad and in this guise, to make their mark. There is an entire generation who have learnt to view Belgium as an elite nation, but once Martinez leaves and their stars fade, the big test will be keeping it that way.
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