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Main article: History of the Belgium national football team
The Belgian national team participated in the first three pre-war world championships, but did not gain much fame in these tournaments, each time taking off after the first round. The 1950s and 1960s were also not the best for the Belgian national team: in two decades, the team took part in only one World Cup (where it again failed) and never qualified for the European Championships. The 1970s were relatively successful for the Belgians: they managed to win their first victory in world championship matches (in 1970 against the El Salvador national team), and even won bronze medals at Euro 1972, beating the Hungarian national team in the match for 3rd place. However, after that, the Belgian team again declined.
The situation began to change from the end of the 1970s, when Belgian club football received professional status, and the Anderlecht, Brugge and Mechelen clubs achieved significant success in European competition. The success of the national team in this period is associated with the name of the coach Guy Tees , who led the team in 1976 . The team's game at that time was based on reliable defensive play and quick counterattacks, and such notable players as Jan Coulemans, Francois van der Elst, René Vandereykken, goalkeeper Jean-Marie Pfaff played in its composition. Already at Euro 1980, the Belgians reach the final, where they lost to the German national team with a score of 1: 2. The 1982 World Cup was successful for the Belgians, where the reigning world champions Argentines were already beaten in the first match, after which the team managed to get into the second round, where, however, they suffered two defeats from the national teams of Poland and the USSR and left the tournament. Then the "Red Devils" overcame qualifying matches to Euro 1984, but they failed at the tournament itself. There, Gi Tis' wards won only one victory, after which they were defeated by the French with a score of 0:5, and in the decisive match they lost to the Danes with a score of 2:3. The peak of this team was the 1986 World Cup, where the team reached the playoffs (albeit only on additional indicators). In the match of the 1/8 finals, the Belgian team beat the USSR national team with a score of 4: 3, and knocked out the Spaniards from the tournament in the quarterfinals, defeating them in a penalty shootout. However, in the semifinals, the Belgians could not oppose the Argentina national team, which, thanks to Diego Maradona's double, reached the final and became the champion, and the Belgians lost to the French team in the match for 3rd place with a score of 2:4. After that, the Belgians began to decline again and they missed Euro 1988, but were able to qualify for the 1990 World Cup, where they again reached the playoffs, but already lost to England in the 1/8 finals. After this tournament in 1991, Guy Tees left his post.
In the 1990s, the Belgian national team was unable to achieve any significant success, missing the European Championships and. At the 1994 World Cup, the Belgians again reached the 1/8 finals, where they lost to the Germans with a score of 2: 3, and already at the next World Cup they completely flew out after group stage. Euro 2000 became the home tournament for Belgium (together with Holland), but the Belgians failed to show themselves in any way, having again taken off after the group stage. The Belgians performed well at the 2002 World Championships, where once again they managed to get into the 1/8 finals and lost there to the future champions, the Brazilians. After that, the Belgian team missed two World Cups and three European Championships, each time remaining outside the qualification.
The new successes of the Belgian national team are associated with the "golden generation": most of the players of the national team represent the strongest European championships and are real stars of world football (goalkeeper
Belgium is one of the most developed countries in the world. Even the capital of the European Union and the headquarters of NATO are located in Brussels, the capital of this country. And the whole world knows Belgium for chocolate, Belgian waffles, which were born in the 17th century in Liege, and, of course, for football, which is considered the most popular game in the country (how else?).
FIFA co-founder, 1920 Olympics scandal and 1980 European silver medal
Given the proximity of Belgium to France on land, and England by sea, there were simply no options in which football would not gain popularity in the country. It is believed that it was the British who brought this sport to the Belgians in the middle of the 19th century. But the national team played the first official match with France much later - in 1904 (3:3). True, there were earlier fights, including against the French and the Dutch, but then the British often played in the Belgians, so the results of these matches did not go into the official standings.
In any case, the Belgians are not sad about this and can be proud that their country, together with Denmark, Switzerland, Germany, Spain, France, Holland and Sweden, is a co-founder International Federation football (FIFA), formed in 1904. It is quite obvious how significant the influence of the Belgians in football at that time was. Perhaps it was even too big, because on Olympic Games in Antwerp, Belgium in 1920, one of the first truly high-profile scandals in international football happened.
The final of the tournament, where the teams of Belgium and Czechoslovakia met, in the first and last time in history has not been played to the end. With the score 2:0 in favor of the Belgians in the 40th minute, the players of the Czechoslovak national team defiantly left the field in protest against what they considered to be biased refereeing. By the way, that match was judged by the English team of referees. But leaving the field and submitting a protest to Czechoslovakia did not help - the protest was rejected, and the national team was disqualified, so Spain got the silver medals, and Holland bronze.
The victory at the 1920 home Olympics is still Belgium's only major victory. international tournaments, and the Belgians came closest to another gold at Euro 1980 in Italy. Once in a group with England (1:1), Spain (2:1) and Italy (0:0), the Red Devils took first place only due to the greater number of goals scored, beating Italy. According to the format of the tournament, the winners of the two groups immediately met in the final, and here the Belgians were not lucky - a double of Horst Grubech brought victory to Germany.
Final of European Championship 1980. Germany 2-1 Belgium
Never before has Belgium been so close to winning a major tournament, and even the bronze at the 1972 home European Championship cannot be considered too outstanding, since only four teams played in the tournament - the Belgians lost to Germany (1: 2) in the semi-finals, and in the match for the third place they defeated Hungary (2:1). By the way, another team of the tournament was the USSR national team, which devastatingly lost to Germany in the final (0:3).
Belgium at the World Cups
As we have already said, Belgium was one of the founding countries of FIFA, and was one of the four European teams that agreed to play in the first official World Cup in 1930 in Uruguay. True, she performed unsuccessfully on it - not a single goal scored and two defeats from the USA (0:3) and Paraguay (0:1).
Oddly enough, but from the moment Belgium debuted at the World Cups to the first victory of the national team in this tournament, a whole football eternity has passed - 40 years. At the next two world championships in 1934 in Italy and 1938 in France, Belgium was knocked out in the first rounds (tournaments were held in the play-off format) - first from Germany (2:5), and then from France (1:3). The 1950 World Cup did not take place at all without Belgium - the country was only recovering after the Second World War, during which it suffered significant destruction - destroyed cities, industry and a difficult economic situation.
As a result, the only World Cup that Belgium was able to qualify for in the 50s and 60s was the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland. The one on which the German national team won a sensational victory, beating the Hungary of Ferenc Puskas in the final (the famous “Miracle in Bern”). In general, Belgium was not the focus of this tournament. Although in starting match the team unexpectedly drew with England (4:4), in the next match it was defeated by Italy (1:4) and did not leave the group.
World Cup 1954. England 4-4 Belgium
Despite the fact that the next World Cup for Belgium did not happen until 16 years later in Mexico, it is worth recognizing that four years earlier the Belgians were close to making it to the 1966 World Cup in England. But in the additional match they lost to Bulgaria (1:2), and at the last moment they remained out of the final part of the tournament.
The 1970 World Cup was also not very successful for Belgium, which ended up in a group with El Salvador, the USSR and Mexico. The lot favored the "red-blacks" - in the first round, the frankly weak El Salvador turned out to be an opponent, over which a major victory was won (3:0). Even the pogrom from the USSR in the second round (1:4) left Belgium a chance to reach the playoffs - it was necessary to beat Mexico. But Gustavo Peña's only goal from a penalty in the first half brought two points and a ticket to the playoffs of the Latin American team, and Belgium disappeared from the radar of world football for another 12 years.
World Cup 1970. USSR 4-1 Belgium
The national team failed to qualify for the 1974 World Championships in Germany and 1978 in Argentina, but by this time (in 1976) it was already led by the legendary specialist Guy Tees, who soon led his wards to the final at the 1980 European Championship.
To appreciate the scale of Guy Teese's personality in Belgian football, he can be compared to Valery Lobanovsky. Thies was not just a successful coach - he managed to raise entire generations of famous Belgian footballers - Michelle Prudhomme, Eric Goeretz, Whitfried van Moer, Jean-Marie Pfaff and, of course, Jan Coulemans. All in all, Tees' era with the Belgian national team spans 15 years, excluding a one-season break in 1989-90, during which the national team has played three World Cups and two European Championships, achieving the highest results in history.
The first test of Tis and his wards at the world championships was the tournament in Spain in 1982. But already in the first round, Belgium showed that they must be reckoned with, sensationally beating the reigning world champions - Argentina, led by Diego Maradona (1:0). The only goal in the middle of the second half was scored by the famous Liers forward Erwin Vandenberg.
World Cup 1982. Argentina 0-1 Belgium
True, in the second round the Belgians did not play so successfully, scoring only one goal against Salvador, a frank outsider who conceded 10 goals from Hungary in the first round. Nevertheless, the Belgians put two points into the piggy bank, so last round they were even satisfied with a draw with Hungary, successfully obtained thanks to a late goal by Alexander Chernyatinsky (1:1).
Belgium made it to the second group round from the first place, but here its defensive game model collapsed - in the games against Poland (0:3) and the USSR (0:1), the "red-blacks" did not score a single goal, finishing in last place among the three teams. Poland advanced to the semi-finals, then sensationally took the bronze, beating Michel Platini's France.
Four years later, at the tournament in Mexico, Belgium again left the group, but this time it was much harder and only from third place. In the first round, Gi Tis' wards lost to Mexico (1:2), then, not without problems, they took two points with Iraq (2:1), and in the final match they played a draw with Paraguay (2:2).
World Cup 1986. 1/8 finals. Belgium - USSR 4:3
But already in the playoffs, miracles began. In the first round, Belgium got caught by the USSR national team, which collected one of the strongest teams in its history. Belgium seemed to be an easy opponent for our team, in which Igor Belanov shone, but the hat-trick of the owner of the Golden Ball was not enough to win - the Belgians answered accurate blows Vincenzo Scifo, Jan Coulemans, Stefan Demo and Nicholas Claessen (4:3).
In the quarterfinals of Belgium got another strong opponent - Spain. In the first round, the Spaniards, thanks to the poker of the brilliant Emilio Butragueno, defeated Denmark (5: 1), but Belgium turned out to be too tough for them - in regular time, Juan Senor and Jan Coulemans scored a goal, overtime ended without goals, and Eloy Olaya's only miss in the penalty shootout sent Belgium to the semi-finals, where only the future world champion team of Argentina, thanks to two magnificent goals from Diego Maradona, stopped the Belgians - 2:0.
World Cup 1986. Semifinal. Argentina 2-0 Belgium
The match for third place with France also turned out to be unsuccessful - Belgium took the lead due to the efforts of Jan Coulemans, but in the end was forced to recoup (2:2), and missed twice more in extra time and remained one step away from the World Cup medals.
Further, Belgium played in four world championships in a row, but went out to the playoffs three times already in the first round. At the 1990 World Cup in Italy, the team lost in extra time to England (0:1), four years later in the USA it lost to Germany (2:3), at the 2002 tournament in Japan and South Korea to Brazil (0:2), and in France in 1998 did not even make it out of the group, having missed the playoffs of Holland and Mexico.
The mid-2000s is generally considered a crisis in Belgian football, which lost its influence, both at the club level and at the national team level, which could not break into the 2006 World Cup in Germany and 2010 in South Africa. Only a new "golden generation" of players raised Belgium to a new highest level in history - Christian Benteke, Romelu Lukaku, Axel Witzel, Musa Dembele, Marouane Fellaini, Kevin De Bruyne, Eden Hazar, Vincent Kompany. Never before have the Belgians been able to boast such stellar players.
It was these guys who helped Belgium achieve one of the best results in the history of the World Cup, making it to the quarterfinals of the 2014 tournament in Brazil. In the group stage, Belgium won three victories in three matches with Algeria (2:1), Russia (1:0) and South Korea (1:0), in the 1/8 finals in extra time they defeated the USA (2:1), but in the quarterfinals was stopped by the future finalists of the tournament - the Argentina national team (0:1).
World Cup 2014. 1/8 finals. Belgium 2-1 USA
World Cup in Russia - maybe the last chance the current "golden generation" of Belgian football to at least repeat best result in the history of the national team, and perhaps even for the first time in history to win the medals of the tournament.
The best player in history - Paul van Himst
Perhaps in this nomination it would be more logical to see this moment already top scorer in the history of the national team, Manchester United striker Romelu Lukaku, or one of the best defenders of the entire era of Belgian football, Tottenham veteran Jan Vertonghen, who has already played the most caps in the history of the national team. However, both of them are still continuing their careers, and Lukaku is only 25 years old - his golden years are still ahead.
As for Paul van Himst, he shone at Anderlecht in the 60s and early 70s, playing 457 matches for the Belgian giants, in which he scored 233 goals. Together with the club, van Himst became the national champion eight times and is one of the greatest players in the history of Anderlecht.
Paul van Himst
Paul van Himst also made a big mark on the national team, scoring 30 goals in 80 matches for national team(his record was then beaten by Lukaku) and helped her qualify for the 1970 World Championships in Mexico, as well as winning bronze at the 1972 European Championships. Van Himst confessed four times best player year in Belgium, in the early 2000s was named best football player countries for 50 years, and in the IFFHS ranking ranked 39th among the strongest players 20th century.
The current Belgium national football team has, perhaps, the strongest squad in its history. However, the "golden generation" of Belgian footballers is not yet in a hurry to make history.
History of the Belgium national football team
- Participation in the final stage of the world championships: 12 times.
- Participation in the final stage of the European Championships: 5 times.
Achievements of the Belgian national team
- World Cup - 4th place (1986).
- European Championship - silver medalist (1980), bronze medalist (1972).
Belgian team at the world championships
Long setbacks
The Belgians are participants in all three pre-war world championships. True, they did not gain much fame there, and moreover, they suffered four defeats in four matches (the 1934 and 1938 tournaments were held according to the Olympic system, and in 1930 there were two more teams in the group with Belgium), and, accordingly, they were eliminated after the first stage of the competition.
Things were not much better after the Second World War - out of the first eight post-war championships, the Belgians qualified for only two, and even there they were eliminated after the first group round. True, we must give them their due, for a year they scored their first point, drawing with England 4:4, and in 1970 they were able to win their first victory, defeating 3:0.
But the defeats from the teams of the USSR and Mexico still left the Belgians in third place in the group. Thus, it took the Belgian national team 40 years to win their first World Cup victory.
The rise of Belgian professional football
However, with the transition of Belgian club football to professional footing, the situation began to change - in the late 70s - early 80s of the last century, Anderlecht, Brugge and Mechelen began to regularly reach the decisive stages of European competition. For example, in 1978 Anderlecht took the Cup Winners' Cup, and Brugge reached the final of the European Cup.
All this could not but affect the game of the national team, where European-scale players such as Jan Coulemans or Enzo Schifo began to appear.
The first successful performance of the Belgian national team at the World Cup dates back to 1982. On the spanish championship the Belgians came in the rank of vice-champions of Europe and beat the national teams of Argentina and El Salvador in the group, and with the team of Hungary they parted with the world.
And even though Belgium lost to Poland and the USSR in the second group round, it was undoubtedly a breakthrough. Four years later, the Belgians were already fighting to reach the final.
Belgium team at the 1986 World Cup
At that championship, they did not play too brightly, the USSR national team was passed by Belgium not without the help of the Swedish referee Fredrickson, and the Spanish team was defeated in the quarterfinals only with the help of penalty shootouts. But be that as it may, only the Argentina national team, led by the great Diego Maradona, could stop the Belgians, who sent both goals into their gates.
Period of stability
Then Belgium played in four more World Cups, leaving the group on three occasions, and losing in the 1/8 finals to very strong rivals: in 1990 - England, in 1998 - Germany, in 2002 - Brazil.
The last case is probably remembered by many Russian fans. Then in last match of the group stage, Belgium and Russia fought for the exit, and we were satisfied with a draw. However, the Belgians won 3:2, and Russian football players went home, and Russian fans went to the streets of Moscow, where they rioted with window smashing and car burning.
Belgium team at the 2014 World Cup
The Belgians missed the 2006 and 2010 World Championships, but returned to the world championships with an incredibly talented generation of footballers capable of much.
The test of strength of the "golden" generation took place in Brazil 2 years ago, and again the paths of the Belgians crossed with the Russian team, and again we were defeated. Having won three victories in the group, the Belgians not without difficulty defeated the US team in the 1/8 finals, and then lost to Argentina with a score of 0:1.
To be honest, the 2014 Belgian national team didn't make any solid impression on me, remaining in my memory as just a set of excellent players. South Korea, Russia, Algeria and the USA, this composition of the Belgian team is simply obliged to beat. They beat them, but lost to the first serious opponent, despite the minimum score, with almost no options.
Belgium national team at the European Championships
For the first time, the Belgians entered the European Championship only in 1972, and it was a huge success, because in final part At that time, only four teams qualified for the Euro.
Losing in the semi-finals to the German team 1:2, the Belgians defeated the Hungarian team in the match for 3rd place with the same score.
The next time Belgium was on and climbed up another notch. Having won an incredibly difficult group (draws with England and Italy, a victory over Spain), the Belgians reached the final, where, like eight years ago, they lost to the German national team with exactly the same score 1:2.
At the 1984 and 2000 European Championships, the Belgians did not leave the group stage, and in the latter case they entered the Euro as hosts and received the dubious honor of becoming the first host team of the European Championship, which failed to overcome the group stage.
At Euro 2016, the Belgians reached the quarterfinals, but this result is unlikely to please her fans. All five teams with which the Belgians met (including the Italian team) were inferior to them in the selection of players. But only the Irish, Swedes and Hungarians, who are not shining now, managed to win. from the organized and purposeful teams of Italy and Wales, defeats followed, and from the Italians, in fact, unconditional.
Belgium national football players
Record holders for the number of matches played
- Jan Vertonghen - 97 matches.
- Jan Kulemans - 96.
- Timmy Simons - 94.
- Eric Gerets and Frankie van der Elst - 86 each.
- Enzo Shifo - 84.
Belgium top scorers
- Romelu Lukaku - 31 goals
- Paul van Himst, Mark Wilmots and Bernard Voorhof - 30 each.
- Wesley Sonk - 24.
- Jan Coulemans and Mark Degriz - 23 each.
- Erwin Vandenberg - 20.
Belgium national football team
The current Belgium national football team is second only to the Germans, the Spaniards, and, perhaps, even the French, in its composition, deservedly occupying the top lines in the FIFA rankings.
Belgium goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois is one of the best in the world in his role. Jan Vertonghen, Thomas Vermaelen, Toby Alderweireld are cementing the defense, Atsel Witsel and Marouane Fellaini are responsible for the center of the field.
The Belgian attack group is especially good - Eden Hazard, Kevin de Bruyne, Raja Nainggolan, Kevin Mirallas, Yannick Carrasco, Dries Mertens, Romelu Lukaku. But there is also Benteke, Origi, Batshuayi.
The only thing weakness the Belgian national team - the lack of high-quality full-backs. However, this position is far from the most key in modern football.
Belgium national football coach
The appointment of the Spaniard Roberto Martinez in August 2016 as the head coach of the Belgian national team caused bewilderment - the Spaniard worked mainly with medium-sized English clubs and did not achieve anything serious.
However, under his leadership, the Belgians went through the rink in the qualifying group for the 2018 World Cup: 9 wins, 1 draw with a goal difference of 4:3. It was the Belgian national team that became the first European team to pass through this selection.
