According to The Guardian, Belgium pushed Spain hard in the quarter-final but injuries decimated the midfield at the worst moment. Amadou Onana was already sidelined. Zeno Debast was unavailable over fitness concerns. Youri Tielemans was scratched minutes before kickoff. The old core ran out of bodies and answers.
Belgium spent a decade as the team everyone expected to win something. Now the bill has arrived. The old stars can still deliver a performance, but they cannot carry a tournament through injuries, age, and thin succession planning. The federation squeezed every last mile from a brilliant generation and did not find enough fresh talent behind it.
Rudi Garcia now owns the hard part. He must decide whether Belgium build around younger players who showed promise—like Jérémy Doku —or attempt one more half-measure with veterans whose availability and legs keep betraying the ambition. A reset is coming either way.
Belgium's failure was not a grand tragedy. It was a familiar football problem with a glamorous cast: a federation that squeezed every last mile from a brilliant generation and did not find enough fresh horsepower behind it. The quarter-final fight matters because it strips away the easy insult that this team went out soft. They didn't. They went out old, hurt, and short a midfielder named Youri Tielemans.
Filed to the World desk · Jul 10