For years, Belgium have been almost as much in the doldrums as us. This is a small country who more often than not punched above their weight in International tournaments. I remember them reaching the WC Semi Final back in 1986. Since then, they've fallen by thew wayside, but I've noticed a whole crop of exciting youngsters coming through recently.

Best of which is Steven Defour, a 20yr old Standard Liege midfielder, who is hotly tipped to join one of the big clubs at some point this year.

Other cracking youngsters include Marouane Fellaini & Axel Witsel (20 & 19, also Standard), Jan Vertonghen & Thomas Vermaelen (21 & 22, Ajax), Vincent Kompany (22, Hamburg), Moussa Dembele (21, AZ), & Mohammed Tchite (24, Racing Santander).

Might not be long before we see the Belgians back competing in the finals of major tournaments again.

Still never forgiven this lot for ruining my night and our qualifying chances at Hampden in 2001.

Billy Dodds scores after 48 seconds, we go 2 up midway through the first half when he buries a penalty as Joos Valgaeren (then of Celtic) gets sent off for handball on the line. Home and cruising you would think. Nup, Barry Ferguhun blows a chance to make it 3 scud right after half time and thereafter we give a 10 man Belgium 2 goals to take a point back they should never have had and wreck our qualifying chances and my night out.

I was delighted we avoided them in the world cup draw.
They've been utter pish for the last 3 qualifying campaigns particularly the last one, but i think they've been as low as they can go and i think they will now rapidly improve with all the young players you have mentioned. And because their results have been so crap they were only 4th or 5th seeds, yet will probably prove much stronger than that in the upcoming campaign. Very similar to the "backlash" we produced in the euro qualifiers. When you've been down you come back up even hungrier. Also, their olympic team made of under-23 players looked very strong the other day and was unlucky to lose to Brazil.

When Kompany and Vanden Borre broke through a few years back there was a big fuss, and although Kompany is still progressing fairly well, Vanden Borre has stagnated first unable to get a game at fiorentina and now genoa. So this latest crop might not turn out as good as they look just now. Remember Gordon, Hutton, Scott brown etc. were 22, 23 before they started doing the business for scotland so it may still be a little early for these belgian players. But they are definitely on the way up.

One last point on mohammed tchite- i always thought he was congolese but ive just wikipediad it and turns out he's just been granted belgian citizenship. One of the main problems in Belgium recently has been the surplus of african imports stopping young belgians breaking into first teams, i suppose getting mohammed tchite one of these imports to play for them is some payback

Yeh I remember this game too. Some absolute giant scored a header in the last minute from a long hopefull freekick punted into our box.

I also remember we played them in the 2nd last game of that group over there and had to win to have chance. Cue an uninspiring performance and Craig ( Malcolm Mackay/James Leighton) Brown started all his pish about how many corners we got etc etc.

daniel van buyten was his name. Similar to the other giant jan koller scoring a last minute winner against us in another 3-2 defeat back in the craig brown days. One thing, i think our current team has a stronger mentality than the team back then. I know panucci scored a last minute goal against us but we were chasing the game. I feel we are better equipped at hanging onto leads now. Caldwell, McManus and Gordon are much more experienced at the top level at a much younger age than any of the Craig Brown era defenders. On top of that we have good defensive midfielders nowadays. Hopefully last minute goals against us scored by giants is a thing of the past!

Belgium could certaintly do well in years 2 come with players like Kompany, Vanden Borre and Dembele. Still dont think their goin to win a Cup any time soon though.

Although the Red Devils slumps is slightly compartitable with Scotland's they have a vastly superior major tournament record, in 94 they beat beat Holland and were unlucky to be drawn against then Champions Germany in the second round despite finishing joint top, simirlarly in 2002 they got the short straw and were unlucky in defeat to Brazil.

Was that not in the first 5-10 minutes?

I remember people saying this abouit the swiss five years ago and nothing happened.

Steven Defour looks a fantastic player, last season Ajax could have signed up but weren't willing to cough up the 1 million pound transfer fee.

You forgot to mention Anthony Vanden Borre of Fiorentina

Kévin Mirallas of Lille (and probably soon to be Saint-Étienne) is also a pretty useful player.

A little known fact is that Belgium were the only undefeated team in the 1974 World Cup (finals and qualifiers).

Scotland, of course, lost to Czechoslovakia.

Is Defour at the olympics?
I can't recall hearing his name.

No he opted to stay and play for his club. Shame because i havent seen him play on tv before

Thought I would check in case I was wrong............. but I wasn't


http://www.soccerbase.com/results3.sd?gameid=310960

Though it wasn't Valgaeren who was sent off, I was sure it was!

Very impressed with Liege last night. I think Kompany obviously is the pick of their players but I also like the look of Dembele.

He plays for Genoa now.

i shout abuse at the tv every time i see him now,not something i would normally do;that game obviously affected me more than i realise-we sure made amends in brussels though,eh ?

Was Wesley Sonck not tiped for big things when he signed for Ajax?

I know he was injured quite a lot during his career though.

[quote name='Frank Booth' date='Aug 13 2008, 17:02' post='2693081']
A little known fact is that Belgium were the only undefeated team in the 1974 World Cup (finals and qualifiers).

Scotland, of course, lost to Czechoslovakia.


Did Belgium not lose one of the games in the Finals ? Might be wrong !!

They didn't make it to the finals. They won all their qualifying games other than drawing twice with the Netherlands. They both finished on 10 points but Netherlands had a better goal difference.

edit...upon checking, the stat seems to be rubbish anyway as Hungary and Colombia also didn't lose a qualifier yet didn't make the finals

Yves Ma-Calamity. Anyone think he has a future with Belgium national squad?

Just back from holiday in Belgium, meeting up with the family



I believe it was Eric Deflandre who was sent off, and how we got back into the game...no idea.





No chance. Thankfully we have better keepers, currently Silvio Proto (Anderlecht) and Stijn Stijnen (Club Brugge). Also got Logan Bailly (Genk), playing in the olympics. Worrying though, that Maka made it into the squad.

I wasn't alive at the times Belgium played at their best, in the 1980s making a Euro final and 4th in the World Cup. Since WC 2002, we've lost the quality, and just completely struggled to succeed. Thankfully, we have a good crop of youths coming through now. We have Van Buyten and Kompany in defence, with rising star strikers Dembele and Mirallas coming through. Also Fellani, who played for Standard Liege against Liverpool, is a good hope for the future. We have decent keepers in Proto and Stijnen as well. The squad looks like it may start to improve again, and maybe in a few years time, it's back to the major Tournaments.

That's even without the untimely death of Francois Sterchele, who died last May, before Club Brugge's last game of the season. Sterchele was starting to play for Belgium, after playing well for Charleroi (my home team) and Germinal Beerschot. He then moved to Club Brugge, before dying in a car accident last May.

So, hopefully Belgium is on the up. A semi final in olympics looks great, counting the fact we had two players sent off against Brazil, and one against Italy. And how we gave the Italians two penalties and still beat them is a great sign of things to come.

A very respectable 1-1 @ Turkey tonight

Was players like Defour, Felliani, Witsel etc. playing for Belgium 2nite???????

I'd guess so. Defour scored on Saturday against Estonia, Felliani is starting to become a regular, and Witsel should be in there soon.

We beat Estonia 3-2, Wesley Sonck with two goals and one for rising star Steven Defour.

1-1 away to Turkey is brilliant. I'd expect us to end 3rd in the group behind the Turks and Spain. We must win all the other games, and take points from the other two if we have any hope of qualification. A good start for us.

I doubt we'll qualify for WC 2010, but I have the feeling we'll be at Euro 2012. Our youngsters are showing their potential, our future looks good.

Impressive 1-1 draw away at Luxembourg last night, Tough derby match

New thread required - Luxembourg, An emerging force?

Was it Switzerland they beat not so recently

Yup.

Luxembourg have actually improved quite a bit over the past 1 or 2 years. Near the end of the last Qualifying campaign, they only lost 1-0 away to the Dutch, when a few years ago they'd have been beaten by about six goals. They don't get thrashed much any more, and the win away to Switzerland shows an improvement.
Also a decent draw against Belgium after falling behind 1-0. Bit embarrassing for me, being Belgian, but it doesn't worry me too much. Only a friendly after all, we should be able to hit back in our next Qualifying match. As for the Bourg, definitely look capable of getting points now.

Are you going to bring this up every time Belgium have a bad result?

Yes

I was actually in Barcelona a few weeks back on a course with a lad from Belgium. Was discussing how they have improved of late. Mentioned our 2-2 draw v them. We then watched them v Spain in a bar, Unlucky to lose 2-1, Spain scoring in the last minute. Although much drink was consumed I am sure one of the goals they conceeded was a real howler.

Eden Hazard will be the bawz in a couple of years time. He's 17 at the moment and looks a real prospect.

Highlights from the match on Youtube here: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=g-PQaGv5e_8

Doesn't look like any major howlers, just quality Spanish skill. Comments are interesting as well, some people mentioning Belgium being denied an "offside" goal. Not seen that particular highlight though.

Belgium's defense has been a bit shocking of late though. We completely messed up in our 3-2 win against Estonia, terrible defending. If we can get that out of the system, we'd be even better than we currently are. Still, we got an advantage over Turkey in the qualifying so far, looking at the games either side has played.

Have u seen this boy play or r u just saying this cos he is good on Fitba manager.