EURO 2016 IS supposed to be the tournament that Belgium’s golden generation come of age and realise their extraordinary potential by winning the competition for the first time in their history.
Beaten 2-1 by West Germany at the semi-final stage on their debut in 1972, the Red Devils would go one better by finishing runners-up in Italy eight years later — losing out by an identical scoreline to the same opposition in the final.
Their two other appearances at the European championships (1984 and 2000) ended disappointingly in group stages exits.
In front of a home crowd as co-hosts of Euro 2000, Belgium fell short in a group that contained, as it does now, Italy and Sweden. Despite getting off to a winning start against the Swedes, they suffered defeats in their next two matches to miss out on a place in the knockout stages.
The man who wore the number seven shirt in that team, Marc Wilmots, is the same one that has been tasked with knitting together the most talented set of players the nation has ever produced.
A former midfielder who won the Uefa Cup in 1997 with Schalke, Wilmots, who was nicknamed ‘Das Kampfschwein’ (meaning ‘The Warpig’) as a player, had already been assistant manager under Dick Advocaat and George Leekens when he took the job in 2012.
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Wilmots at Euro 2000. EMPICS Sport
EMPICS Sport
In a country divided by the Dutch-speaking Flemish and the French-speaking community, his objective was to rid the Belgian national team of their reputation for infighting and cliques by uniting the group.
Fortunately for him, coinciding with his arrival was the emergence of a generation of footballers with supreme technical ability, speed and power.
After the embarrassment of 2000, the Belgian football association’s technical director Michel Sablon went about completely restructuring its system for developing players — with an emphasis on non-competitive games for U7s and U8s and centralised training schools for the elite kids.
An exciting, young team, which included several sons of immigrant parents such as Vincent Kompany, Axel Witsel, Maruoane Fellaini, Romelu Lukaku, Divock Origi, Christian Benteke and Mousa Dembele, eased through the 2014 World Cup qualifying campaign with eight wins and two draws to top the group and reach a major tournament for the first time in 12 years.
Wilmots appeared to be getting the best out of his ethnically-diverse squad and, as dark horses and many people’s second team, they recorded wins over Algeria, Russia, South Korea and the US at the finals in Brazil before going out to eventual runners-up Argentina in the quarter-finals.
In booking their place at this month’s Euros in France, Belgium again topped their group and lost just one game in ten — to Wales. With two years more experience under their belts, and ranked the highest European nation in the Fifa rankings in second, this current crop had been touted as one of the pre-tournament favourites.
The Belgium starting XI that lost to Italy. Nick Potts
Nick Potts
On paper, Belgium’s squad is up their with the best. But while there is an abundance of options going forward such as Premier League pair Eden Hazard and Kevin De Bruyne, as well as Yannick Carrasco of Atletico Madrid and Napoli winger Dries Mertens, they have had a number of problems.
With captain Vincent Kompany and Zenit St Petersburg centre-half Nicolas Lombaerts both ruled out through injuries, one of the big decisions was who Wilmots would pair at the heart of their defence.
Despite having a ready-made solution and arguably the Premier League’s best defensive partnership last season in Tottenham duo Jan Verthonghen and Toby Alderweirild at his disposal, however, he opted instead to keep the former at left full-back with the latter named alongside Barcelona’s injury-prone Thomas Vermaelan.
It didn’t pay off as they were undone by a Leonardo Bonucci long ball for Italy’s first goal before being caught out on the break for Graziano Pelle’s second in a 2-0 loss.
And he has made some questionable calls elsewhere, too. Enforcers Witsel and Radja Nainggolan were included as holding midfielders on Monday night, with Fellaini preferred in the number 10 role behind Lukaku, meaning Hazard and De Bruyne occupied the flanks.
That also proved a mistake as none of the attacking trio in the 4-2-3-1 performed to anywhere near their best, with De Bruyne particularly poor. Wilmots is a big fan of Fellaini’s and, although he is a useful player if the team plays to his strengths, it seems ludicrous for him to be given that position ahead of De Bruyne, Hazard, Carrasco or Dembele.
Belgium boss Wilmots has made several questionable selection decisions. Nick Potts
Nick Potts
Up front, Belgium were wasteful when they did create in Lyon. On the rare occasion that Lukaku got his runs right, he spurned a golden opportunity by shooting wide of the mark, and although his replacement Divock Origi looked far livelier upon introduction with 17 minutes to play, the Liverpool forward was also guilty to missing a couple of clear goalscoring chances late on.
Moreover, without Kompany there appeared to be a real lack of leaders on the pitch and the decision to make Hazard captain is an odd one.
In the aftermath of the defeat, Wilmots moaned that Italy hadn’t “played real football”, but if Ireland can get something from Saturday’s game in Bordeaux by putting in an equally-disciplined display, they will be more than happy to let the Belgian boss say what he likes.
Despite an abundance of talent, Belgium's golden generation have problems ahead of Ireland showdown
- Ben Blake reports from Versailles
EURO 2016 IS supposed to be the tournament that Belgium’s golden generation come of age and realise their extraordinary potential by winning the competition for the first time in their history.
Beaten 2-1 by West Germany at the semi-final stage on their debut in 1972, the Red Devils would go one better by finishing runners-up in Italy eight years later — losing out by an identical scoreline to the same opposition in the final.
Their two other appearances at the European championships (1984 and 2000) ended disappointingly in group stages exits.
In front of a home crowd as co-hosts of Euro 2000, Belgium fell short in a group that contained, as it does now, Italy and Sweden. Despite getting off to a winning start against the Swedes, they suffered defeats in their next two matches to miss out on a place in the knockout stages.
The man who wore the number seven shirt in that team, Marc Wilmots, is the same one that has been tasked with knitting together the most talented set of players the nation has ever produced.
A former midfielder who won the Uefa Cup in 1997 with Schalke, Wilmots, who was nicknamed ‘Das Kampfschwein’ (meaning ‘The Warpig’) as a player, had already been assistant manager under Dick Advocaat and George Leekens when he took the job in 2012.
In a country divided by the Dutch-speaking Flemish and the French-speaking community, his objective was to rid the Belgian national team of their reputation for infighting and cliques by uniting the group.
After the embarrassment of 2000, the Belgian football association’s technical director Michel Sablon went about completely restructuring its system for developing players — with an emphasis on non-competitive games for U7s and U8s and centralised training schools for the elite kids.
An exciting, young team, which included several sons of immigrant parents such as Vincent Kompany, Axel Witsel, Maruoane Fellaini, Romelu Lukaku, Divock Origi, Christian Benteke and Mousa Dembele, eased through the 2014 World Cup qualifying campaign with eight wins and two draws to top the group and reach a major tournament for the first time in 12 years.
Wilmots appeared to be getting the best out of his ethnically-diverse squad and, as dark horses and many people’s second team, they recorded wins over Algeria, Russia, South Korea and the US at the finals in Brazil before going out to eventual runners-up Argentina in the quarter-finals.
In booking their place at this month’s Euros in France, Belgium again topped their group and lost just one game in ten — to Wales. With two years more experience under their belts, and ranked the highest European nation in the Fifa rankings in second, this current crop had been touted as one of the pre-tournament favourites.
On paper, Belgium’s squad is up their with the best. But while there is an abundance of options going forward such as Premier League pair Eden Hazard and Kevin De Bruyne, as well as Yannick Carrasco of Atletico Madrid and Napoli winger Dries Mertens, they have had a number of problems.
With captain Vincent Kompany and Zenit St Petersburg centre-half Nicolas Lombaerts both ruled out through injuries, one of the big decisions was who Wilmots would pair at the heart of their defence.
Despite having a ready-made solution and arguably the Premier League’s best defensive partnership last season in Tottenham duo Jan Verthonghen and Toby Alderweirild at his disposal, however, he opted instead to keep the former at left full-back with the latter named alongside Barcelona’s injury-prone Thomas Vermaelan.
And he has made some questionable calls elsewhere, too. Enforcers Witsel and Radja Nainggolan were included as holding midfielders on Monday night, with Fellaini preferred in the number 10 role behind Lukaku, meaning Hazard and De Bruyne occupied the flanks.
That also proved a mistake as none of the attacking trio in the 4-2-3-1 performed to anywhere near their best, with De Bruyne particularly poor. Wilmots is a big fan of Fellaini’s and, although he is a useful player if the team plays to his strengths, it seems ludicrous for him to be given that position ahead of De Bruyne, Hazard, Carrasco or Dembele.
Up front, Belgium were wasteful when they did create in Lyon. On the rare occasion that Lukaku got his runs right, he spurned a golden opportunity by shooting wide of the mark, and although his replacement Divock Origi looked far livelier upon introduction with 17 minutes to play, the Liverpool forward was also guilty to missing a couple of clear goalscoring chances late on.
Martin O’Neill was complimenting his latest opponents earlier this week when he said “Belgium have got a real set of individual players”, but that’s just it — they’re individuals, not a team.
Moreover, without Kompany there appeared to be a real lack of leaders on the pitch and the decision to make Hazard captain is an odd one.
In the aftermath of the defeat, Wilmots moaned that Italy hadn’t “played real football”, but if Ireland can get something from Saturday’s game in Bordeaux by putting in an equally-disciplined display, they will be more than happy to let the Belgian boss say what he likes.
Listen to The42′s Ben Blake on the 98FM Euro 2016 Daily podcast throughout the tournament
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Big things expected Bordeaux Euro 2016 Marc Wilmots Belgium Ireland Republic