2 small victories in 10 matches
Two small victories and two draws in ten official matches: if we reduce all the matches of the year to a scale of three points for a victory and a tie for a share, the results show a poor eight out of thirty. A ratio of only 27% of points taken, to which the Devils had not accustomed us since 2009. At that time, under the elusive René Vandereycken, thanked and relayed by Frankie Vercauteren, the selection had only won one meeting out of six, for five defeats (17%).
6 official defeats: a record
2024 will remain a record year in terms of defeats in official matches: six in twelve months. Never in its entire history has our national team lost so many qualifying matches or a tournament in one year. Sad record. It must also be said: given the overload of contemporary calendars and the arrival of the League of Nations, it has never played so much (excluding friendlies). But it is far away, the ratio of 2019 where Martinez’s players had signed thirty out of thirty before Euro 2020 postponed by a year because of Covid.
8 goals scored only
If we have long been worried about the rejuvenation of our defense – which was not a useless debate – it is rather the attack which has weighed us down over the past eleven months: eight small goals scored in ten official matches , that’s not much. Certainly, the Devils have faced clients, such as France (3 times) or Italy (2 times), but nevertheless, six matches without scoring, notably against Israel (1-0), Slovakia (1- 0) and Ukraine (0-0), that’s too much.
The rare scorers are therefore called Openda, De Cuyper, Trossard, De Bruyne (3x) and Tielemans (2x). They are a little more numerous if we add the friendly matches in March and June against Ireland (0-0), England (2-2), Montenegro (2-0) and Luxembourg (3 -0), since Tielemans (2x), De Bruyne, Trossard (2x) and Lukaku (2x) also hit the mark, with seven goals in four games. Alas, the average drops drastically when it counts.
It’s difficult not to point out that the black streak continues for Romelu Lukaku, already down at the Euro and who once again failed to hit the mark against the solid Italian defense last Thursday. We have to go back to his quadruple against Azerbaijan, a year ago, to find any trace of a ‘Big Rom’ goal in an official match.
The slow descent in the FIFA rankings
Former world number one under Wilmots then under Martinez, until March 2022, our national team is slowly sliding down the hierarchy. Sixth in the October ranking, Belgium will, at best, be eighth in the ranking which will be published on November 28, overtaken by the Netherlands and Portugal.
Germany and Italy, ranked behind us, are also recovering. The Devils are now back in the doorway of the top 10. Coming out is not so anecdotal, since it is regularly this ranking which is regularly used to determine the seeds in the qualifying draws, or even final stages of tournaments.
