“We will be outsiders against France,” warned Kevin De Bruyne on Wednesday evening after a poor 0-0 draw against Ukraine. This Belgian team finished second in its group, just behind Romania. In this first part of the competition, Belgium only scored two goals, through Kevin De Bruyne and Youri Tielemans. A bit like the French team, the offensive record is quite weak considering the individuals present in Domenico Tedesco’s group.
Courtois’ shadow still there
On the eve of facing the competition favourite, the quality of the game offered, particularly against Ukraine, has given rise to many doubts and many debates among the Red Devils’ followers. Fortunately, some good news has come to enrich this first round of the competition. In goal, it is Koen Casteels (32 years old) who holds the fort. In the absence of Thibaut Courtois, the goalkeeper who will now play in Saudi Arabia is the real satisfaction of this start of the Euro on the Belgian side. With only one goal conceded, the defence, announced to be feverish before the competition, has also shown a reassuring face.
“It’s partly reassuring,” says Guillaume Raedts, journalist and Red Devils follower for the newspaper ‘Le Soir’. “We mustn’t kid ourselves, they weren’t the big guns in front of us in this first part of the competition. Casteels arrived in Germany with enormous pressure because the shadow of Thibaut Courtois was hanging over him, from the first minutes. We also had a press conference with him that was a bit lunar, where a lot of the questions focused on Thibault Courtois, it’s understandable but it wasn’t easy for him to handle. He answered perfectly. He had three good matches with solid saves.”
Defensively, the followers of the Red Devils still point out some small problems in terms of speed. “Jan Vertonghen is 37 years old, if Mbappé leaves behind his back, he won’t see him again,” laughs Guillaume. The real test for this defense will be Monday evening against the France team. The midfielder with Onana, Tielemans and Mangala held up well at the start of the competition, without any spark. Belgium is also experiencing a turning point in its history. Romelu Lukaku (31 years old), Yannick Carrasco (30 years old), Thomas Meunier (32 years old) or Kévin De Bruyne (32 years old) could experience their last Euro. Before giving way to a new generation, these revengers dream of hanging a Euro on their hunting board.
Offensively, it’s difficult
Once again, like the French team, the first part of this Euro 2024 was difficult for Belgium in terms of attack. “There is a lot of material, confides Guillaume. With Kevin De Bruyne in particular, he is the one who must make the difference on the pitch. We have a lot of solutions for the wings with Doku for example. Normally, we have our goal insurance with Lukaku up front, that’s 85 goals in the selection. For the moment it doesn’t want to smile on him.” On the first matches, this informed observer of the Belgian selection confides that there was a mixture of “clumsiness and bad luck”, notably with the video assistance to the referee.
“This Euro is ultimately a bit paradoxical. We could expect to have a very big attack for the Belgians and a disappointing defense, and for the moment it’s a bit the opposite”, explains Loic Woos, journalist for the media WalFoot, who finds that the two teams facing each other on Monday evening “look similar” while qualifying that France still has “more quality and depth of benches in all positions”. And to hope to qualify against the Blues, the Belgian attack will have to wake up.
Original article published on RMC Sport
