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Belgium's top attacker Romelu Lukaku: Difficult to separate from the ball
Photo: Philippe Crochet / imago images / Panoramic International
Belgium: the golden generation is turning gray
The Belgian national team (at 9 p.m. against Russia, TV: ZDF; stream: MagentaTV) is one of the favorites at the European Football Championship in 2021.
She has already done this in previous tournaments - and she owes it above all to those born between 1985 and 1993. From Thomas Vermaelen to Romelu Lukaku: In almost every part of the team, the Red Devils have embodied or embodied a world-class player from this generation.
Only: Statistically, the peak performance of a professional footballer should be around 26 or 27 years of age.
So the Belgians have to hurry if something is going to happen with the first title in the association's history.
Third place at the 2018 World Cup was a success, but the golden generation is noticeably graying.
Marouane Fellaini, Mousa Dembélé and Vincent Kompany are no longer there, but they are still the oldest team in the tournament.
In 2021, the team of coach Roberto Martínez is still unbeaten, the endurance test against Croatia the Belgians won 1-0.
The offensive, very left-leaning 3-4-2-1 system has been tried and tested, the team looks stable.
The team should get through the group stage without any problems.
After that, it will depend on how the three Belgian superstars perform: Wall striker Romelu Lukaku comes confidently to the European Championship, he scored Inter Milan with 24 goals in the first Scudetto since 2010.
Passion genius Kevin de Bruyne can decide games alone if his recently operated nose and eye socket fracture from the Champions League final heals in time.
And Eden Hazard?
After two lost years at Real Madrid, he is looking for his form.
If he finds her, Belgium is to be expected.
Russia: The hope for home advantage
The Russians will not have good memories of the opening opponent.
The team with 1.96-meter storm tank Artem Dzyuba would have made it through the European Championship qualification flawlessly had it not been for the two games against Belgium.
1: 3 in Brussels, 1: 4 in St. Petersburg - success stories against opponents like Scotland or Cyprus were quickly classified.
The Russian team returns to St. Petersburg in the group stage, against Belgium and later against Finland the Russians have a home game in the Krestovsky Stadium.
And what the home advantage in a major event can do for the team of coach Stanislav Cherchesov was shown by the 2018 World Cup: At that time, they made a sensational move into the quarter-finals, threw Spain out of the tournament on the way and only failed on penalties at the eventual finalist Croatia.
A similar tournament would be an even bigger sensation in 2021 than it was back then, the strong group opponents make progress as one of the best group thirds appear to be the most realistic path to the round of 16. In order for this to succeed, the Sbornaja is hoping for a playful Aleksandr Golovin, one of the few legionnaires: In the second half of the season he became a top performer at Niko Kovacs AS Monaco. If the offensive finesse carries the form into the European Championship tournament, he can make the difference for the Russian team in cooperation with captain Dzyuba.