‘What old timers can do’: Belgium’s golden generation is back — and England should be watching

Belgium are in the World Cup 2026 quarter-finals, and almost nobody saw it coming. When the tournament kicked off 30 days ago, the Red Devils — stripped of so many of the star names who carried their previous campaigns — barely registered on anyone’s list of contenders. Fewer still believed in them when they trailed Senegal 2-0 with 85 minutes played in the last 32. Then came one of the all-time great World Cup comebacks, followed by a last-16 win over the USA. Running through the whole story are two men who were already there in 2014: Thibaut Courtois and Romelu Lukaku.

The Senegal comeback that changed Belgium’s tournament

With 85 minutes played in the last 32, Belgium were 2-0 down to Senegal and heading home. They turned it around in the closing stages to go through — a comeback BBC Sport’s Daniel Austin ranks among the greatest in World Cup history.

Comebacks like that are not accidents. They require a dressing room that has already lived through big nights and does not unravel when the clock runs against it. That is precisely what this Belgium squad has: mileage banked across multiple World Cups.

The last-16 win over the USA followed the same script. Courtois and Lukaku both took key roles, as though the tournament had rewound a decade.

Courtois and Lukaku: the last men standing from 2014

Thibaut Courtois and Romelu Lukaku both played for Belgium at the 2014 World Cup. Twelve years on they remain starters and remain decisive — the goalkeeper when a match needs saving, the striker when it needs winning.

That is the point behind the phrase ‘what old timers can do’. This is not the golden generation of 2018, when Belgium reached the semi-finals. It has lost names and gained composure.

English audiences know both players intimately. Courtois spent years in the Premier League with Chelsea before moving to Real Madrid; Lukaku’s career took in Chelsea, Everton and Manchester United. Neither is a mystery to England — which may be exactly the problem.

What this means for England

England have not met Belgium in this tournament, but the knockout bracket could still bring them together. The message from the Red Devils is unambiguous: this team cannot be judged on the ranking it carried into the World Cup.

There is history here too. Belgium beat England twice at the 2018 World Cup — once in the group stage and again in the third-place play-off. Both fixtures were tight, low-scoring and decided by fine margins rather than by talent gaps.

A side capable of overturning a 2-0 deficit with five minutes left is nobody’s preferred knockout opponent. England will know that better than most.

How far can Belgium actually go?

Belgium are in the quarter-finals. Their best World Cup finish remains third place in 2018, after losing the semi-final to France. A world title would be the first in their history.

The 48-team format lengthens the road to the final and taxes ageing legs. In theory that penalises an experienced squad — except experience is exactly what gets a team through extra time, penalties and the fatigue of a long tournament.

Calling Belgium favourites would be a stretch. Writing them off, at this stage, would be considerably worse.

FAQ