PREVIEW: Can Belgium’s golden generation win first World Cup in last hurrah? | OneFootball

Belgium will be seeking to upset the odds and claim a historic victory at the 2026 World Cup in likely the final international tournament for Kevin De Bruyne and Romelu Lukaku.

The Napoli pair are amongst a handful of players who remain from the core of the side widely considered as their country’s golden generation, and could go out on the highest of highs on football’s biggest stage.

Going off of FIFA’s world rankings, which Belgium had topped for almost half a decade until March 2022, they should have been in with a chance of having already won it, but failed to ever deliver on their promise at a major tournament.

But with Lukaku now 33 and De Bruyne one year his senior, it’s probable they’ll both have called time on their international careers by the time the World Cup arrives in Morocco, Portugal, and Spain in 2030.

The Red Devils are aiming to bounce back from an abysmal showing in Qatar in 2022, where they failed to progress from the group stage – a stark contrast from their third-place finish in Russia four years prior.

De Bruyne and Co. did little to restore their pride at the 2024 Euros, staggering to second in the group stage and only progressing on goal difference from a group they were heavily favoured to top, before losing 1-0 to France in the round of 16.

Rudi Garcia is the man tasked with leading the country at this summer’s finals. His predecessor, Roberto Martinez, could never truly apply the finishing touches as boss while Dominic Tedesco shouldered the blame for the Euros catastrophe.

Garcia guided Belgium through an unbeaten qualifying campaign to book their spot in North America, netting 29 goals across their eight matches.

They’ve also recorded encouraging wins over the USA, Croatia and Tunisia in the build up to the competition.

The former Roma and Marseille manager will hope his combination of exuberant talents alongside the aforementioned senior players will pay dividends.

Thibaut Courtois, Thomas Meunier, Youri Tielemans and Axel Witsel are the other survivors from the 2018 squad and will bring plenty much-needed experience to a relatively young group.

There’s still significant X-factor amongst the Belgian ranks, with Jeremy Doku looking like the complete package for Manchester City whilst fellow winger Leandro Trossard has enjoyed a successful campaign with Arsenal.

Serial Premier League winner De Bruyne appears to be evergreen, a testament to his spell as one of football’s long-standing world-class midfielders.

They may be relied upon for firepower given that neither Charles De Ketelaere or Matias Fernandez-Pardo are the most prolific of forwards, and Lukaku was included despite Garcia labelling him “out of shape” after a lengthy injury.

Aston Villa midfielder Amadou Onana will bring a physical edge to the centre of the park and the tournament could perhaps be a coming of age opportunity for Strasbourg’s Diego Moreira.

The Red Devils’ could fall short defensively, though. Both Brandon Mechele and Timothy Castagne are over 30 and none of Sporting CP’s Zeno Debast, AC Milan’s Koni De Winter and Lille’s Nathan Ngoy have been mainstays at club level.

Belgium face Egypt in their opening match in Seattle on Monday 15th of June before taking on Iran in Los Angeles six days later.

They end the group stage by travelling to Canada to face New Zealand in Vancouver early on Saturday 27th of June (GMT).