Quite surprisingly, it was ultimately during the draw for the pot 4 team that our specialists pouted the most with Kazakhstan. A distant destination which offers relatively few landmarks, even if Belgium has already traveled there several times.
“We had a player at RWDM, Vorogovskiy, otherwise they are not stars“, remembers Manuel Jous. But for him, the main thing to take into account will undoubtedly be the moment when the Devils will travel to Kazakhstan: “It is the city with the greatest temperature difference in the world. It goes from -40 in winter to +40 in summer, it works on synthetic too“.
Despite everything, in terms of results, Kazakhstan has nothing to impress the Devils. “In 2024, Kazakhstan has played ten matches, nine defeats and a draw against Norway at home, 0-0. For the rest, quite a few big defeats, 5-0 in Norway, 4-0 in Austria, 3-0 in Slovenia, 5-0 against Greece. We were talking about teams that had a positive spiral in the head of Wales and North Macedonia, for Kazakhstan, it's a bit the opposite“, analyse Lancelot Meulewaeter.
As far as the squad is concerned, it's difficult to pick a name out of the crowd. “Players with the highest market value: Bakhtiyar ZaynutdinovBesiktas player, Light Alphabetcentral defender of Zenit and Vorogovskiy is still there. This is not a team with high-sounding names or a star who stands out a little. Kazakhstan must a priori be affordable, even if we know that a long trip and match on synthetic is also a trap“, summarizes Lance Meulewaeter.
For Benjamin Deceuninck, he is an opponent who must a priori give a 6/6 as a result, even if he must remain humble: “We will remain cautious because with our little crisis, temporary we hope, we will have to play all these matches to the fullest. Now, we must not oversell the quality of these teams. Even in the greatest of our crises, at the beginning of the 2000s, we were able to beat them“.
“We would have had this draw six or eight years ago, we said to ourselves that it was flawless or almost guaranteed.“, agrees Manuel Jous.
