Mini football figure - Belgium

The Belgian national football team is the football team of the Western European country of Belgium. The greatest successes of the Belgian team known as the "Red Devils" to date were the Olympic victory in 1920, second place in the 1980 European Championship and third place in the 2018 World Cup.

20th century

The first official international match took place on 1 May 1904 in front of 1500 spectators in Ukkel at the stadium of the Racing Club de Bruxelles, in the De Ganzenvijverstadion against France and ended 3-3. During this match, between the latter's club secretary Louis Muhlinghaus and the French delegation, the creation of FIFA was suggested, which then took place in Paris on 21 May 1904. The name "Red Devils" was given to the Belgian team.

The name "Red Devils" dates back to 1906, when a football reporter thought that the Belgians played like devils in red jerseys.

The Belgian national team had its first heyday in the early 1920s, when it became Olympic champions in Antwerp and was also one of the few European teams to take part in the first World Cup in Uruguay. It was not until the 1970s and 1980s that Belgium was able to build on these successes. At that time, the Belgian team, with players like Jean-Marie Pfaff and Jan Ceulemans, achieved considerable success at World Cups and European Championships. In qualifying for the 1974 World Cup, however, they failed to score a goal and drew twice against the eventual runners-up, the Netherlands, only because of their poorer goal difference.

21st century

After the 2002 World Cup, the Belgian national team began its decline when they missed five consecutive major tournaments from the 2004 European Championship in Portugal to the 2012 European Championship in Poland and Ukraine. Meanwhile, the Belgian national under-21 team reached the semi-finals of the 2007 European Under-21 Championship and qualified for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, where Belgium finished fourth. Players such as Witsel, Vermaelen, Vertonghen and Fellaini became key players in the Belgian senior national team in the following years.

The team failed to qualify for the 2008 European Championship and the 2010 World Cup. In the qualifiers for the 2012 European Championship, Belgium met Germany, Turkey, Austria, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan in Group A and finished third in the group, thus missing out on qualification for this tournament as well.

After the national coach Georges Leekens, who had been in charge since 2010, resigned in summer 2012, his co-coach Marc Wilmots became interim coach. The latter was later appointed the new head coach of the Belgian national team. The Belgian national team then qualified for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil as group winners and without a single defeat. Part of the success was attributed to Marc Wilmots, when he formed a unity out of a previously divided team and gave his players freedom, but also demanded discipline. He also established professional conditions in the Belgian Football Association, with a team that was a mixture of experienced players as well as talent that was considered outstanding. At the finals in Brazil, the Belgian team played Algeria, Russia and South Korea in the group stage. They won all three games and qualified as group winners for the last 16,

where they beat the United States 2-1 after extra time. In the quarter-finals, Belgium was eliminated by Argentina.

After qualifying for the 2016 European Championship in France, Belgium claimed the top spot in the FIFA World Ranking, but lost it to Argentina after a test match defeat to Portugal in March 2016. After the Belgian national team failed to live up to their role as favourites at the European Championship finals in France and were eliminated by Wales in the quarter-finals, Wilmots was sacked. With Spaniard Roberto Martínez taking over, Belgium became the first European team alongside hosts Russia to qualify for the 2018 World Cup, winning their group with three wins in three matches. They went on to reach the semi-finals after wins over Japan (3-2) and record world champions Brazil (2-1), where they lost to eventual world champions France (0-1). Belgium finished the tournament in third place after beating England 1-0.

In the qualifiers for the 2021 European Championship, the Belgians won all 10 matches in their group to finish top of the group ahead of Russia. For the 2021 finals, they were again placed in the same group with Russia. After wins against Russia (3-0), Denmark (2-1) and Finland (2-0), Belgium qualified as group winners for the round of 16, in which they won 1-0 against Portugal and qualified for the quarter-finals against Italy, in which they lost 2-1 and failed to qualify for the semi-finals.

Belgium's participation in the European Football Championship

Belgium participated in the European Championship finals six times, including once as hosts with four participants, for which Belgium also had to qualify, twice in a final round with eight participants, twice in a final round with 24 participants and once as automatically qualified hosts with 16 participants.