The Belgian FA asked the fans to get behind the team and they did at a full and noisy Roi Baudouin stadium. The Red Devils also played their part by defeating an experimental Dutch side 4-2. It was only a friendly but Marc Wilmots will be mightily pleased as the World Cup qualifiers get ever… Read More »
Chatting to a Dutch friend last night, I said tonight’s match was only a friendly; to which he replied, when the Netherlands play Belgium, it’s never a friendly. That’s true to an extent and we should hope for some serious football. The result almost certainly won’t match that of the friendly in 1999, Robert Waseige’s… Read More »
Just 48 hours after Belgium lost to England at Wembley, Marc Wilmots was offered the job as team coach for the national team on a two year contract. The Belgian FA wanted to give him a longer period but Wilmots declined, saying he would like to be judged at the time of the 2014 Brazil… Read More »
They came; they saw; they lost! Many of the Belgian players said they were very happy to be finally playing at the mythical Wembley stadium, although Kevin Mirallas said he would have preferred to have played at the original. On the day, the Red Devils were not outplayed, far from it. They had more possession… Read More »
Belgium have not beaten England since 1936, in Brussels. Belgium have never won in England. The odds are therefore, obviously, against them winning this evening. (Although odds seem to be dropping as I write, 4-1 from 6-1). But stranger things have happened. Five of the likely Belgium team play in the Premier League (with two… Read More »
The Belgium squad is one of the most talented in world football at an individual level. They haven’t got the results yet and in parts that’s due to a lack of full backs and a dearth in international-class strikers. Added to that, Belgium has a habit of seemingly dominating opponents and then conceding sloppy goals.… Read More »
With the Belgium national team due to arrive in Luton tomorrow, ahead of their friendly match at Wembley on Saturday, and with Marouane Fellaini telling reporters that everyone in England is talking about Belgium, it’s time to answer the question – where did this talented group of players come from? A couple of years ago,… Read More »
First course in Brussels Tonight’s match with Montenegro is definitely the entrée before the main course which will be served at Wembley next Saturday. These matches are especially important for two men: Marc Wilmots and Eden Hazard. When Georges Leekens jumped ship for the extra cash on offer at Club Brugge, the suits at the… Read More »
I’ve just realised that it’s exactly one year ago today that I started my blog. In that piece – and I’m not sure if anybody read it, I said – “If I have a touchstone (for writing this blog), it’s Timmy Simons … rather like the country, he’s self-effacing, reliable, multilingual, and he knows he’s never going… Read More »
Morocco’s coach Eric Gerets had some good news and some bad news for Georges Leekens yesterday. Gerets has the same agent as Joachim Löw and called him to ask if Germany would be playing their first choice team in Istanbul tonight. The German coach assured Gerets that Die Mannschaft would be doing just that but… Read More »