When Belgium played Austria in Brussels last October, coach Georges Leekens said they should have scored eight. Sadly for the Belgians, they only scored four and also conceded four. Tonight in Vienna, Leekens will be happy if his team scores one, as long as they don’t concede any. Victory is essential, Belgium are in fourth place in Group A with four points from four games. Germany are streets ahead at the top, while Austria and Turkey both look more likely to finish second than Leekens’ men. Defeat tonight will put Belgium six points behind Austria having played one game more.
Injuries, short- and long-term, mean that several players are missing, notably Thomas Vermaelen, Marouane Fellaini, Jonathan Legear, Silvio Proto, Toby Alderweireld and Bjorn Vleminckx. Romelu Lukaku is also unlikely to start the game. All this has meant call-ups for Genk’s 18 year-old keeper Thibaut Courtois, Club Brugge’s Vadis Odjidja and Olympiakos’ Kevin Mirallas. Also in the squad are Utrecht’s Dries Mertens, Twente’s Nacer Chadli and Genk’s Jelle Vossen – all likely to start on the bench. To prove the country’s strength in depth, there are players such as Kevin De Bruyne, Yassine El Ghanassy and Dedryck Boyota in the Under 21 side.
However, names mean nothing unless you can put together a team that gets results on the pitch. And that’s where Belgium have been falling down in the past few years. The country is ranked just below Gabon and way behind Burkina Faso; the only good news is that Austria recently had the biggest drop of the teams in FIFA’s top 100 rankings and are now 61st, just one place above Belgium.
Since 2002, Belgium have not qualified for either the European Championships or the World Cup. The coaches employed (Aimé Antheunis, René Vandereycken, Francky Vercauteren, Dick Advocaat and now Leekens) have achieved little. Antheunis inherited an ageing side, Vandereycken seemed more concerned about his personal terms and marketing rights, Vercauteren was only given the job temporarily and Advocaat jumped ship when the Russians waved a wad of notes in his face. Leekens appears to be doing all the right things and the atmosphere in the squad is better than ever. Tonight then is a major test.
Apart from the definite starters (Daniel Van Buyten, Vincent Kompany, Jan Vertonghen, Timmy Simons, Steven Defour and Eden Hazard), Leekens has a few choices to make. It’s nailed on that Sunderland’s Simon Mignolet will start in goal and Genk’s Marvin Ogunjimi is the most likely replacement for Lukaku. That leaves three places up for grabs.
At right back, a weak spot in the side, it’s either Laurent Ciman or Genk’s Anthony Vanden Borre, with the Standard man to get the nod as he’s sounder defensively. If Leekens opts for 4-3-3 rather than 4-4-2, then Standard’s Axel Witsel will be in; on the flanks in either case, it will be a straight choice between Fulham’s Moussa Dembélé and Chadli.
Austria will start favourites in Vienna; when the teams met in Brussels, the home side were aided by Paul Scharmer’s red card. Austria have some quality players in the team: captain Marc Janko said recently that Twente’s coach Michel Preud’homme has had a big influence on his game and that’s why he’s scoring so often in the Eredivisie; an ex-Twente man, Marko Arnautovic, now with Werder Bremen, is only 21 but was the main danger at the Roi Baudouin stadium. Belgium’s “golden generation” have been spotted as potential world cup winners in 2014 or 2018, but they have to start winning important matches soon.