Belgium’s national men’s football team has qualified for next year’s World Cup that will be held in Canada, Mexico and the United States. A convincing 7-0 win against Liechtenstein in Liège on Tuesday evening was enough to see Belgium qualify as winners of their group.
Hans Vanaken opened the scoring for Belgium after just three minutes. The rest of the match was pretty much a walk in the park for the Red Devils. The star of the show was Jeremy Doku (photo below, left). He strolled past the Liechtenstein defence, scoring twice before half-time. The first half ended 3-0 in Belgium’s favour.
The second half saw Belgium score 4 goals in just 7 minutes. Brandon Mechele, Alexis Saelemaekers and Charles De Ketelaere all found the back of the net, in De Ketelaere’s case twice. With a comfortable 7-0 lead Belgium slowed things down later in the half.
The size of win is good news for the Belgian national team coach Rudi Garcia (photo below). Garcia has had a mixed start as coach and has come in for criticism from fans and in the press.
However, as he stated in an interview following Tuesday evening’s game, he has has now delivered on two key objectives: maintaining Belgium’s Nations League status and securing qualification for the 2026 World Cup qualification. The Red Devils' performance at the World Cup is likely to be decisive in determining how long he remains the Red Devils’ coach.
Draw on 5 December
Belgium will know their opponents once the World Cup draw is made on Friday 5 December. The Red Devils will be in Pot 1, but they will not travel to North America as favorites.
There are lingering concerns about the fitness of some key players. However, if team members such as Thibaut Courtois, Kevin De Bruyne, Romelu Lukaku and Jérémy Doku are fit and on form, Belgium will be a force to be reckoned with at next summer’s tournament.