Goals from Everton, Aston Villa, and an on loan Chelsea starlet helped Belgium to a stunning 3-0 win away to Serbia. And that was without the injured Marouane Fellaini. Connor Jipps asks if the nation is about to fulfil their potential?
On Friday night it may have gone under the radar – due to matches involving British representation – but Belgium continued their fine recent international form, beating Serbia 3-0 in Belgrade.
Whilst Serbia are not a European powerhouse, they have players of a high calibre in their starting lineup such as Chelsea’s Ivanovic and the City pairing of Kolarov and Nastasic, and as such the result should be receiving more credit. Let’s not forget Serbia entered the match fresh from a 6-1 drubbing of Chris Coleman’s Wales side in September.
If you now look at the World Cup Qualifying Group A, Belgium now sit aloft it’s rivals in arguably the qualifiers Group of death, Croatia, Serbia, Wales, Scotland and Macedonia their prey. It is a realisation, at last, of the arrival of the side to the top table of European football, as their golden generation begins to gel and dazzle with alarming regularity.
To look at Belgium’s starting lineup on Friday would’ve been to have seen many of the Premier League’s finest current imports. Eight of the eleven ply their trade in England whilst the other three have all been involved in Champions League action. The accumulative value – based on most recent transfer fees – is a huge £131 million, albeit Eden Hazard and Axel Witsel alone form half of that total following big money moves this summer. That’s without the presence of Marouanne Fellaini and Romelu Lukaku by the way.
That large amount also does not bare in mind the change in players value since their previous move. For example Vincent Kompany joined Man City from Hamburg for just under £6 million. In this day and age, a player of his ilk would be worth five times that. Toby Alderweireld, the Ajax Centre half is yet to have moved club in his career also, so when that prospective figure is factored in Belgium would have a higher cumulative value than the much higher rated countries of Germany, England and Brazil.
Even the substitute bench is loaded with talent. Simon Mignolet has been by far and away the Premier League’s best goalkeeper this season, yet he cannot get into his countries first team. Kevin Mirallas of Everton has taken to the English game like a fish to water and again he cannot currently breach the walls of the current starting lineup.
Such has been the meteoric rise of the countries footballing stature, that it is hard to believe that Belgium laboured to an unconvincing 1-0 win over perennial European minnows, Andorra, just ten years ago. On that day Belgiums line up read as follows: De Vlieger, De Cock (No laughing at the back!), Valgaeren, Simons, Dheedene, Vanderhaeghe, Buffel, Goor, Sonck, Bassegio, Van Houdt. With perhaps the exceptions of Thomas Buffel and Timmy Simons – the latter sat on the bench for the Serbian demolition – not any of those names achieved a smidgen of the success as the current line-up is currently.
Just four years ago the national side looked devoid of ideas and without fight. But it hadn’t always been like this. During a period that lasted between the mid 70’s and the mid 80’s Belgian football looked as promising as it does in the modern era. Anderlecht were one of the most successful and feared club sides in Europe at the time and the nation celebrated a superb run to the 1980 European Championships Final.
And then came the lull. A series of disappointing results lead to failure to qualify for the major tournaments more times than not and the side have not appeared in a major tournament since the 2002 World Cup held in Japan and
South Korea. A barren run at a time of barren talent.
Times have now changed once again for the better for the Belgian people as players recognised across the continent lineup to battle for their country. Whilst Anderlecht and Standard Liege have produced a few of these talented youngsters, much credit must also go to other overseas clubs that have spotted the talent and harnessed it so effectively; Ajax in particular has become a breeding zone for attacking Belgian defender.
This is a squad that could dominate for years to come, with an average age of less than 25. These players will continue to play alongside each other and improve should their attitude and Belgium will flourish as a result.
They next face Craig Levein’s Scotland back in the motherland and you’d certainly expect the Belgians to continue their fine form with yet another victory.
Form is temporary, class is permanent, so the old adage goes, but in Eden, Axel & co, it looks like Belgium will be showing plenty of both for years to come.
image: © mikehamm
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