The Belgian team, third place in the 2018 World Cup in Russia, was eliminated in the group stage of Qatar 2022 by failing to go from a draw to zero in their third game, thus ending a golden generation of footballers who were present in three world soccer championships.
Age, the recurring criticism of a Belgian team that arrived at Qatar 2022 with less expectations than in Russia 2018, but that even so has been one of the disappointments of the tournament when it fell at the first exchange and that puts it thus, in a cruel way , the end point to his golden generation.
From a country of 11.59 million inhabitants, a soccer powerhouse was born. It opened its doors to children of immigrants after the failure of the 2000 Euro Cup that they hosted together with the Netherlandsthe Jupiler Pro League became a ‘quarry’ of the Premier League and Roberto Martínez led the total transformation process that has led them to the elite.
The famous “golden generation of Belgian football” that has ended without a title, staying close to fighting for it in a final in the World Cup in Russia and in the last League of Nations. They lacked that last step, but even so they signed the best results in the history of their country.
And this shortlist of successful players, who gave their last blows, unbecoming of what they represented during their career with the national team, in Qatar, came to an end after a goalless draw against Croatia in a match in which Romelu Lukaku was able to change the history.
Vincent Kompany, the great captain, already withdrew from the team after the historic third place in Russia, and gave the bracelet to an Eden Hazard who, since then, injuries have not allowed him to be the player he was.
His downturn represents the general fall of a Belgium that has seen the end of an era in Qatar. Jan Vertonghen (35 years old), Dries Mertens (35), Axel Witsel (33), Toby Alderweireld (33), Eden Hazard (31) and Kevin De Bruyne (31) they point to having played their last World Cup with the ‘red devils’ -perhaps the last two can reach the Eurocopa in Germany 2024- after having led the golden generation.
The one who has the most possibilities is De Bruyne, as he maintains a World star level with Manchester City, although his performance with Belgium has dropped and his statements during Qatar 2022 have left something to be desired.
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Next to him, and depending on how relations remain after internal problems, appear Thibaut Courtois (30) and Romelu Lukaku (29), who left the pitch crying over his failures, as the next leaders of a country in which everything indicates that there will be a new tenant on the bench after the World Cup and whose list for the next major tournament will have to be almost completely renewed.
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