Belgium head into the 2022 World Cup with a final opportunity for success from a golden generation. The Red Devils are the only side placed inside the top five of the Fifa world rankings to have never won the tournament, and come off a third-placed finish in 2018 after narrowly losing in the semi-finals to France.
That leaves much of the focus on finding a way to navigate the latter stages of the tournament. While Belgium have shown that they can match any side in terms of performances, too often they have lacked that clinical edge when it matters.
Inter Milan striker Romelu Lukaku, on loan from Chelsea, always has an eye on the golden boot and he will carry most of Belgium’s goalscoring output with support from Kevin De Bruyne.
But with De Bruyne, and Eden Hazard, both now 31 years old, there is a feeling that it could be all or nothing for Roberto Martinez’s side in Qatar.