Today, March 20, the Ukraine national team will play their first playoff match of the League of Nations 2024/2025 for a spot in League A against Belgium. Here is our opponent.

Belgium

General Information

As of January 2025, the Belgians held eighth place in the official FIFA ranking. The first match in history for Belgium's national team was played on May 1, 1904 against France (3:3), their biggest wins came on June 4, 1994 against Zambia (9:0), February 28, 2001 against San Marino (10:1), August 31, 2017 against Gibraltar (9:0) and October 10, 2019 against San Marino (9:0). Their biggest losses were on May 11, 1927 to England (1:9), March 29, 1936 to the Netherlands (0:8) and September 4, 1959 again to the Netherlands (1:9). The team has the nickname "Red Devils."

Belgium's national team placed third at the World Cup in 2018 and won silver at the European Championship in 1980 and bronze at the European Championship in 1972. Olympic champion in 1920.

Squad

In the first playoff match of the League of Nations against Ukraine, Belgium's head coach Rudy Garcia will be able to count on 26 players.

Goalkeepers: Thibaut Courtois ("Real", Spain), Matz Sels («Nottingham Forest», England), Marteen Vandewerdt («RB Leipzig», Germany), Svenne Lammens («Antwerp»).

Defenders: Amin Al-Dahbi («Stuttgart», Germany), Zeno Debast («Sporting», Portugal), Conor de Winther («Genoa», Italy), Wout Faes («Leicester», England), Thomas Meunier («Lille», France), Arthur Theate («Eintracht F, Germany), Brandon Mechele, Maxime de Kuyper (both — «Brugge»).

Halfbacks: Kevin de Bruyne ("Manchester City», England), Joert Mochie («Ajax», Netherlands), Nicolas Raskin («Rangers», Scotland), Youri Tielemans («Aston Villa», England), Brian Heynen («Genk»), Georges Vanaken («Brugge»).

Forwards: Charl de Ketelaere ("«Atalanta», Italy), Jeremy Doku ("Manchester City», England), Malick Fofana («Lyon», France), Romelu Lukaku («Napoli», Italy), Dodi Luk巴基德文结束在这里，以下是剩余的中文翻译： ebacio («Sevilla», Spain), Michy Batshuayi («Eintracht F, Germany), Alexis Saelemackers («AC Milan», Italy), Leandro Trossard («Arsenal», England).

Head Coach

61-year-old Frenchman Rudy Garcia has been coaching the Belgian national team since January 24, 2025. He replaced German-Italian specialist Domenico Tedesco in this position. 

Prior to this, Garcia worked with French "Corbeil-Essonnes" (1994—1998), "St-Etienne" (1998—2001), "Dijon" (2002—2007), "Le Mans" (2007—2008), "Lille" (2008—2013), Italian "Roma" (2013—2016), French "Marseille" (2016—2019) and "Lyon" (2019—2021), Saudi Arabian "Al-Nassr" (2022—2023) and Italian "Napoli" (2023).

With Lille, he became the champion of France (2010/2011) and won the French Cup (2010/2011).

Under Rudy Garcia's leadership, Belgium's national team has not yet played any matches. The main tactical formation of the French specialist is 4-3-3.

Captain

The current captain of Belgium's national team is halfback Kevin de Bruyne from English "Manchester City."

At 33 years old, De Bruyne has played 107 matches for the national team, scoring 30 goals. In his club career, besides Manchester City, he also played for Genk, Chelsea, Werder Bremen and Wolfsburg.

With Genk, de Bruyne won the Belgian championship (2010/2011), the Belgian Cup (2008/2009) and the Belgian Super Cup (2011). With Wolfsburg, he became the German Cup champion (2014/2015) and the German Super Cup champion (2015).

With Manchester City, he is currently a six-time English Premier League champion (2017/2018, 2018/2019, 2020/2021, 2021/2022, 2022/2023, 2023/2024), a two-time FA Cup champion (2018/2019, 2022/2023) and a five-time EFL Cup champion (2015/2016, 2017/2018, 2018/2019, 2019/2020, 2020/2021). In the season of 2022/2023, he won the UEFA Champions League.

With Belgium's national team, Kevin de Bruyne won bronze at the World Cup in 2018.

Recall that the first match between Ukraine and Belgium for a spot in Division A of the League of Nations will take place today in Murcia (Spain) on the "Estadio Enrique Ceca de Murcia" stadium (kickoff at 9:45 PM).