Only 45 minutes of their first World Cup warm-up match had been played, but the home fans inside Heysel Stadium had had enough. They whistled and booed as the Belgium players walked off at half time, goalless in a friendly against Portugal. The visitors were without their star player and leader, Cristiano Ronaldo, but they had still come closer to scoring than the hosts.
This reaction served to highlight two problems the Belgian national team faces ahead of this summer’s World Cup. First, it demonstrated the pressure they are under to go all the way in Russia. This is the country’s golden generation, the team they have waited decades for. Not so long ago, Belgium struggled to even qualify for major tournaments. Now they have the quality to win them.
Secondly, it showed that as things stand Belgium are failing to meet the mark. Roberto Martinez has yet to find a system and shape that suits his team, that makes the most of the world class talents at his disposal. The game against Portugal, which ended 0-0, wasn’t an isolated case. In that instance, the whistling fans would have been out of order. Instead, it was just another episode in what is becoming a concerning saga for the Red Devils.
Against Portugal, Martinez started with a front three of Eden Hazard, Romelu Lukaku and Dries Mertens, with Kevin de Bruyne backing them up from an attacking midfield position. Yet there was no fluidity. Their play in the final was stilted and disjointed. They struggled to create one goalscoring opportunity before the usual ringing of substitutions in the second half of a friendly.
Martinez has had two years to get this right and yet with the World Cup just days away he looks no closer to a winning formula. In some ways, this Belgium team right now is reminiscent of the team England took to the 2006 World Cup. They too boasted some of the best players in the world at the time, but Sven Goran Eriksson couldn’t find a way to get the best from them. England wasted their chance and Martinez looks set to waste Belgium’s this summer.
Despite this, the Red Devils will likely make it out of their World Cup group - they have enough to quality to see off Panama, Tunisia and probably England too - but it’s in the latter rounds where their deficiencies will surely be exposed. Belgium are currently on a 19-match unbeaten streak. They have shown themselves to be tough to beat, but at the World Cup they are expected to win and nothing Martinez has done so far suggests he has a method on how to do that.
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