When the World Cup began 30 days ago, few believed Belgium, shorn of so many star names from previous campaigns, were among the potential winners. Even fewer would have believed it when they were 2-0 down with 85 minutes played against Senegal in the last 32. But the Red Devils delivered one of the all-time great comebacks to vanquish the Senegalese, then followed it up with a 4-1 thrashing of the USA on their home turf.
Eden Hazard, Mousa Dembele, Marouane Fellaini and Vincent Kompany may be long gone, but a squad still featuring Thibaut Courtois, Romelu Lukaku, Kevin de Bruyne and Axel Witsel has turned a mediocre start into a potential shot at glory. As they prepare to face Spain for a place in the semi-finals on Friday, the question is whether Belgium’s golden generation was written off too soon, or if manager Rudi Garcia is harnessing their power differently.
“Belgium reach World Cup quarter-finals after stunning comebacks against Senegal and USA.”
Belgium reached the quarter-finals in Brazil in 2014 and the semi-finals in Russia in 2018, but were wretched in 2022, eliminated in the group stage behind Morocco and Croatia. “I think this is a new era for us,” Real Madrid goalkeeper Courtois, playing in his fourth World Cup, said before the USA victory. “It is true that there are some players from the golden era, but the World Cup in Qatar for us was not that good. Now we have another generation with younger people, new people, willing to do great things and writing in the history pages for Belgium.”
Courtois is right — the younger players are shouldering much of the burden. Of the four survivors from 2014 and 2018, the 34-year-old Courtois has played every minute of this tournament. But De Bruyne, Lukaku and Witsel have featured far less regularly. Witsel, 37, who left relegated Girona at the end of the La Liga season, was brought on for a single minute at the end of the win over the USA. At 33, Lukaku has scored an impressive three goals but has done so by playing fewer than 50% of minutes, often coming on as a substitute and taking advantage of a tired defence reeling from the strong pressing of 25-year-old Atalanta forward Charles De Ketelaere. De Bruyne, now 35, was injured during the Senegal game — before his departure Belgium had won one out of three matches, but since then they have won twice and scored seven goals in roughly 130 minutes.
With Spain looming, Belgium’s evolution from a fading golden generation to a team reinvigorated by youth raises one question: have they simply rediscovered their edge, or is this a new era entirely?