Belgium will soon play two European Championship qualifiers. The first will go ahead against Azerbaijan, the second against Estonia. They will be the third and fourth games in this European Championship qualifying campaign for the Red Devils. Read a brief preview below.
General
Domenico Tedesco announced a few days ago the Red Devils’ selection for the two upcoming matches. The young Devils have also already arrived in Tubize, their base of operations for this European Championship. Only Yannick Carrasco was not there yet. We already knew that Kevin De Bruyne and Thibaut Courtois would not be in the selection, they would only return at the start of the EC, but which Devils will get the chance to lead us to that EC?
With many injuries and many players of uncertain form, the coach had to do a lot of puzzling to sort out the selection. In that category, we may also mention Romelu Lukaku. The striker just moved to Rome, but has only played one game there, in which he did not exactly make a difference. Jeremy Doku also just transferred to Manchester City and was called up. Who is included for the first time is Cercle Brugge’s young Hugo Siquet.
Thibaut Courtois is thus not in the squad, the goalkeeper is unavailable for a long time due to a serious knee injury. In his place come Koen Casteels, Arnaud Bodart, Matz Sels and Thomas Kaminski.
New defender Hugo Siquet starts in the back line alongside Jan Vertonghen, Ameen Al-Dakhil, Zeno Debast, Wout Faes, Arthur Théate and Timothy Castagne.
In front of them come midfielders Jouri Tielemans, Amadou Onana, Oral Mangana and Olivier Deman. They will have to provide the threat now that Kevin De Bruyne is injured.
In the attacking line, Romelu Lukaku will start along with Loïs Openda, Johan Bakayoko, Dodi Lukebakio, Leandro Trossard, Yannick Carrasco, Charles De Ketelaere and Jeremy Doku.
After the qualifiers, the 2 teams with the most points will advance to the next round. All qualifying matches will be settled by December. Then there will also be play-offs that will determine the remaining 3 tickets. In those, the countries that did not yet qualify and performed best in the Nations League will play. Then follows the knockout phase of the tournament.
The opening match of the tournament will be played on Friday 14 June 2024 in Munich, at Bayern’s home ground. On Sunday 14 July, a month later, the final will be played at the Olympiastadion in Berlin. The other cities in which it will be played are: Cologne, Dortmund, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Gelsenkirchen, Hamburg, Leipzig and Stuttgart.
Belgium-Azerbaijan
The third EC qualifier will be the one against Azerbaijan on 9 September. If Belgium can win, they will have as many points as Austria at the moment. However, the Red Devils will have to do so on the ground in Azerbaijan, as the match will be played at the Dalga Arena in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan.
Against Azerbaijan, Belgium were already victorious 3 times, playing a draw once. Again, the Devils should not face too many problems against the country that is only ranked 121 in the FIFA rankings.
Azerbaijan is last in Group F of the EC qualifiers, with only 1 point won after 3 matches. In their last EC qualifier against Estonia, they played 1-1 draw. They also played against Austria and Sweden, whom they lost 4-1 and 5-0 respectively.
Belgium-Estonia
On 12 September, the Red Devils will play their next match: a home match against Estonia. It will be the fourth match in the 2024 European Championship qualifying campaign. However, on the same September 12, Austria also has to play again, so it could be that if Belgium win against Azerbaijan, they will still be overtaken if they lose against the Estonians.
Estonia is ranked 111 in the FIFA rankings, so it would in principle be a more difficult opponent than Azerbaijan. Of the nine matches between the Red Devils and Estonians, the Belgians won eight of them, and only had to concede defeat once.
Estonia too did not touch more than 1 point yet. They got that point from the qualifier against Azerbaijan. Estonia also played Austria and Belgium once already. Against Austria they lost 2-1, the Belgians won their match 0-3.
So Estonia should not be an impossible task for the young Devils. In the Brussels King Baudouin Stadium our Red Devils can give their best in front of their own public.
