​When the World Cup kicked off 30 days ago, the notion that Belgium could contend for the title felt distant. The squad had been stripped of many of the star names who had propelled them onto this stage in prior campaigns, and few foresaw that they might still emerge as serious contenders. It seemed even less credible when they found themselves 2-0 down with 85 minutes on the clock in the last-32 clash against Senegal. Yet the Red Devils produced a performance that will long be remembered, pulling off one of the sport’s most iconic World Cup comebacks to topple the Senegalese. They then followed that up with a display of authority in beating the United States 4-1 on American soil, one of the tournament’s most striking statements to date.
Although Eden Hazard, Mousa Dembélé, Marouane Fellaini, and Vincent Kompany have faded from the spotlight, Belgium still possess a core of proven talents – Thibaut Courtois, Romelu Lukaku, Kevin De Bruyne, and Axel Witsel – who have helped morph a modest start into a serious quest for glory. As they prepare to face Spain in a quarter-final on Friday at 20:00 BST, the question lingers: did Belgium’s golden generation get written off too early, or is manager Rudi Garcia extracting a different sort of power from these players?
Belgium reached the quarter-finals in Brazil in 2014 and progressed to the semi-finals in Russia in 2018, a period when the squad was widely regarded at its peak. Yet they disappointed in 2022, exiting in the group stage behind Morocco and Croatia. “I think this is a new era for us,” said Courtois, the Real Madrid goalkeeper playing in his fourth World Cup, before the USA match. “There are still some players from the golden era, but Qatar wasn’t that good for us. Now we have another generation with younger players, new people, who are ready to achieve great things and write new chapters in Belgium’s history.” Courtois is right: the load now rests more heavily on the shoulders of the younger cohort.
Among the four players who carried Belgium through 2014 and 2018, Courtois, now 34, has logged every minute of this tournament, while De Bruyne, Lukaku, and Witsel have appeared far less frequently. Witsel, 37, who left relegated Girona at the end of the La Liga season, was on the field for just a single minute at the end of the win over the United States. Lukaku, at 33, has notched three goals but has done so while playing fewer than half of Belgium’s total minutes, often arriving as a substitute to exploit an exhausted defense pressed by the high-intensity work of 25-year-old Atalanta forward Charles De Ketelaere. De Bruyne, now 35, was injured during the Senegal match, and before his injury Belgium had won only one of three games; afterward, they’ve won twice, scoring seven goals in roughly 130 minutes of play.
Full-back Thomas Meunier is another survivor from 2018 who did not feature in 2014, and his playing time has diminished as the tournament has progressed. This team’s evolving balance reflects a broader shift: a blend of seasoned captains and a wave of younger talents who have embraced heavier responsibility, pushing Belgium toward a possible breakthrough that seemed improbable not long ago. As the quarter-final against Spain approaches, this Belgian side appears to have harnessed a renewed collective energy, forging paths to glory that once seemed distant and reconfiguring a once-fading golden generation into a credible title challenger.