Tom Saintfiet on Belgium’s shameful show: Why it was expected

Gambia national team coach Tom Saintfiet says Belgium’s shameful elimination from the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 is not shocking.

The world’s second-highest-ranked nation and 2018 FIFA World Cup Bronze medalist made a preliminary stage exit in Qatar. They finished third in Group F and had to disappointingly board the plane back home.

The former Free State Stars coach, Saintfiet, who is Belgian, told FARPost that the writing was always on the wall before Qatar.

Belgium laboured to beat Canada 1-0, then fell 2-1 to Morocco before scraping to a scoreless draw against Croatia.

BELGIUM’S EXIT WAS NO SURPRISE

“It was not really unexpected for us. We knew that months before the World Cup that the team was not so good,” Saintfeit said.

“They are highly ranked in the FIFA rankings but more related to the FIFA ranking points than the quality of the team.

“The team is not the same as the 2018 team when we were way top and maybe even had the opportunity to be World champions.

“Now, first of all, some top players became much older or too slow or were not in form. Some top players like Eden Hazard have no game time with their clubs or have long-term injuries,” Saintfiet said.

“And in this tournament (goalkeeper Thibaut) Courtois and (midfielder Kevin) De Bruyne didn’t show their potential and naturally also Romelo Lukaku. It is not a surprise.”

Belgium finished on four points, one behind Croatia, while Morocco claimed the top spot with 7 points. Bottom-placed Canada had zero points.

NEEDS AN OVERHAUL

Belgium coach Roberto Martinez quit immediately after the scoreless draw against Croatia following six years in charge of The Red Devils.

“Only on Thursday, I think they played a good second half, and Lukaku had several opportunities to score that winning goal that we needed to get close to qualification after the bad match we had against Canada and a very bad match against Morocco.”

Saintfiet added that there is no doubt that Belgium needs an overhaul. “But I think it is the true reflection of the current situation,” Saintfiet said.

“We never also further developed the team and never gave young talent an opportunity to play because we have some young talent, and they needed this opportunity. So, yeah, that is Belgium, but it is not unexpected.”

RELATED STORY: Lukaku details what went wrong following Belgium’s World Cup exit

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