It's not really joy for the Belgian selection. Exiting Euro 2024 with a mediocre round of 16 loss to France (1-0), Domenico Tedesco's team is going through quite a zone of turbulence. Besides the case of Thibaut Courtois – who does not want to return to the selection as long as Domenico Tedesco is coach – which adds tension around the Belgian group, the latest results have not been positive. In a Nations League group with Italy, France and Israel, the Belgians will never have been able to compete with the first two. After 5 matches, 3 defeats and only 4 points acquired, Belgium is out of the race for the final 8 of the Nations League.
The rest after this ad
Worse, its third place condemns it to a play-off next March against a team having finished in 2nd place in League B (currently Georgia, Greece, Norway or Wales) to remain in the elite of European football. A heavy defeat against Israel by three goals (or a 2-0) could even allow Oscar Gloukh's teammates to overtake Belgium on the edge and condemn them to relegation. And to face Israel, Belgium is clearly not moving forward in the best possible condition. Indeed, Belgium is facing an avalanche of injuries, a few hours before the second match of this gathering.
A replacement in English D2 has been called
Against Israel, five players from the group selected by Domenico Tedesco for this November truce will not be in the game. “Lukaku (knee), Onana (foot), Theate (hamstring), De Cuyper (inflammation) and Lavia (hamstring) were not on the plane this Saturday heading to Hungary. They are all injured. Some felt something right after the match, others later. Lavia was training with us and felt uncomfortable”announced the German-Italian coach. Among the players who joined the infirmary, a certain Romelu Lukaku. Captain under the orders of Tedesco, the Napoli player nevertheless played the entire match against Italy.
The rest after this ad
At a press conference this Saturday, the Belgium coach gave news of his number nine. “Regarding Lukaku, there was no agreement for him to only play one match, but he has pain in his knee and must be rested for three or four days”German confirmed. “Honestly, I’ve never seen that. It looks like we're at the end of the season.”. In addition to these cases, we can add other elements who had to decline their presence before the gathering. Of the 51 preselected players, there are 20 who are absent due to injury.
We can thus add the names of Jérémy Doku (Manchester City), Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City), Charles De Ketelaere (Atalanta), Youri Tielemans (Aston Villa), Malick Fofana (Olympique Lyonnais), Aster Vranckx (Wolfsbourg) or even Alexis Saelemaekers (AS Roma) among the main absentees. With a reduced group of 19 elements to face Israel, Domenico Tedesco had to rely on young people like Samuel Mbangula (Juventus) and Matte Smets (Genk). In goal, RB Leipzig goalkeeper Maarten Vandevoordt was selected even though he has only two appearances with the German club. Worse, the case of attacker Norman Bassette raises questions. The 20-year-old from Caen is a substitute at Coventry in the English second division and has not scored in 8 matches, but he is on Domenico Tedesco's list.
Pub. the 17/11/2024 16:04
– UPDATE 17/11/2024 19:19
