UEFA EURO 2016: Belgium team preview

The Belgium national team currently boast a squad of extremely talented footballers, considered by many to be their golden generation. The Les Diables Rouges (The Red Devils) are made up mostly of players playing for some of Europe’s top clubs. While it’s also notable that Mark Wilmots’ team is overall pretty young and almost every player in the current squad has a strong of cementing their place for further upcoming tournaments such as the World Cup in 2018 or even Euro 2020.

They were considered as one of the favourites prior to the 2014 World Cup, but after a pleasing group campaign, defeating Algeria, Korea Republic and Russia, they struggled past the USA in the Round of 16 before failing to perform in a 1-0 defeat against eventual runners-up Argentina. Before that they the Belgians had failed to qualify for three major tournaments in a row: Euro 2012 (finished 3rd in qualifying group), 2010 World Cup (finished 4th in qualifying group) and Euro 2008 (finished 5th in qualifying group).

This really does suggest that suggestions of a golden generation certainly are true. As mentioned above, the majority of this squad play for the top clubs in England, Spain or Italy. Only four from the 23 man squad currently play their trade in the Belgian league.

Euro 2016 Squad

Goalkeepers: Thibaut Courtois (Chelsea), Jean-Francois Gillet (Mechelen), Simon Mignolet (Liverpool).

Defenders: Toby Alderweireld, Jan Vertonghen (both Tottenham), Dedryck Boyata (Celtic), Jason Denayer (Galatasaray), Bjorn Engels (Club Bruges), Nicolas Lombaerts (Zenit), Jordan Lukaku (Oostende), Thomas Meunier (Club Bruges), Thomas Vermaelen (Barcelona).

Midfielders: Marouane Fellaini (Manchester United), Radja Nainggolan (AS Roma), Axel Witsel (Zenit), Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City), Eden Hazard (Chelsea).

Forwards: Moussa Dembele (Tottenham), Michy Batshuayi (Marseille), Christian Benteke, Divock Origi (both Liverpool), Yannick Carrasco (Atletico Madrid), Romelu Lukaku (Everton), Dries Mertens (Napoli).

Key player: Kevin De Bruyne

It was Eden Hazard who was considered by most to be the talisman of this Belgian side, but the key player in Chelsea’s 2014/15 Premier League title win has failed to impress over the last 12 months. Kevin De Bruyne is arguably now Belgium’s key player. Having showed plenty of promise in Brazil, De Bruyne has improved greatly in the last two years and after impressive campaigns with both Wolfsburg and Manchester City, who paid around £56 million for his services, the attacking midfielder is recognised as a top player. At just 24 he is still relatively young, but he seems to have the maturity and quality of potential tournament hero.

https://youtu.be/jUFXD3UV4fM

De Bryune and Hazard were joint top scorers in qualifying with five goals each. Belgium eventually finished top of Group B ahead of Wales and Bosnia Herzegovina (W7, D2, L1). They lost only one game during qualifying and that was against second place finishers Wales.

Qualifying 

Group Matches

Belgium v Italy – 13 June, 2016

Belgium v Rep. Ireland – 18 June, 2016

Sweden v Belgium – 22nd June, 2016

Click here for the full Euro 2016 match schedule. 

Verdict

In June Belgium will be part of the group that includes Italy, Sweden and Republic of Ireland. Not an easy looking task for any team, but this Belgian side really do look the part at present and the Red Devils have an excellent chance of advancing through to the knockout rounds as group winners.

Where the Red Devils are concerned, the bet to be on is Belgium to win the group. It looks as though they’ll have a fantastic chance of getting off to the perfect start against Italy (recently beat them 3-1), a team who are coming into this tournament missing several key players. It would also be a surprise if they didn’t have enough quality to overcome both Sweden and the Republic of Ireland.

Belgium have been installed as the fifth favourites to win the tournaments at odds of 11/1. For some this might seem a generous price. To go in a slightly different direction a second bet that very much looks worth a punt is Belgium to reach the semi-finals at 3/1.