Belgium
It’s a
Phoenix-like Belgium the one that’s going to France. After Scifo and Pfaff’s
generation had a great success (runners-up in 1980), Belgium went through the
desert and without any future prospects.
That time ended when this generation boomed
and created a team that makes envy throughout the world, as it’s hard to choose
just 11, a problem that not many teams have. They did well in the world cup and
will try to better themselves after gaining a bit more experience.
How they qualified
Belgium was
supposed to dominate the group but found in Wales a very tough opponent, one
they were unable to beat. Despite that they showed much more consistency than
Bale’s team, and ended up topping the group as expected.
Squad
Goalkeepers:
Thibaut Courtois (Chelsea), Jean-Francois Gillet (Mechelen), Simon Mignolet
(Liverpool).
Defenders:
Toby Alderweireld (Tottenham), Laurent Ciman (Montreal Impact), Jason Denayer
(Galatasaray), Christian Kabasele (Genk), Jordan Lukaku (Oostende), Thomas
Meunier (Club Brugge), Thomas Vermaelen (Barcelona), Jan Vertonghen
(Tottenham).
Midfielders:
Mousa Dembele (Tottenham), Marouane Fellaini (Manchester Utd), Radja Nainggolan
(Roma), Axel Witsel (Zenit).
Forwards:
Michy Batshuayi (Marseille), Christian Benteke (Liverpool), Yannick Carrasco
(Atletico), Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City), Eden Hazard (Chelsea), Romelu
Lukaku (Everton), Dries Mertens (Napoli), Divock Origi (Liverpool).
Kevin De Bruyne
Club : Manchester City (ENG)
Age : 24 years
In the
beginning of the season it would be a coin flip to decide between De Bruyne and
Hazard as the best player in the Belgium side. After the disastrous campaign
that the Chelsea player had, De Bruyne shown his full ability after going back
to Germany to get his mojo. Man City paid an absurd amount of money and surely
they won’t regret it.
Intelligent,
fast, strong, passes and shoots with the same quality, plays both wide and in
the middle, flows through the offense creating chances for his team. Will be
very important for the Red Devils success.
Jason Denayer
Club : Galatasaray (TUR)
Age : 20 years
The heir of Vincent Kompany, is a City player
since 2014 and has been gaining first team experience at Celtic and
Galatasaray. At Glasgow he had a dream season, be awarded the young player of
the year, and in a very different culture, as is the Turkish, he did extremely
well.
With
Kompany out injured, Denayer will probably start in the Euros and should
confirm his status as one of the next best center halves of European football.
Marc Wilmots
Was one of
the last great Belgium players of the XX century before the bad spell his
national team had away from the big stages. He was assistant manage for 3 years
before the appointed in 2012 and has been the leader of the golden generation.
What to expect from them?
Belgium has
one great advantage over most of the teams in the competition. Looking to their
final squad, it’s noticeable that they have one of the most homogenous group
and quality from end to end.
Wilmots usually presents his team in a 4-2-3-1
with the defense composed by elements formed as center halves, players that use
their aerial capacity to gain possession, with the help of the two tanks in
front of them – usuallu Dembele and Fellaini – that carry the ball to the
creative area of De Bruyne, Hazard and Mertens that are always changing
position and are the perfect servers for the enormous Lukaku.
With such star power, Belgium is clearly one
of the dark horses for the European
Title
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| FIL's Starting XI prediction |
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