Analysis: Belgium, mutant and more mature, is ready to be champion | Belgium

Few traces of mistrust remain on Belgium. They were understandable: the super talented team that turned expectations into frustration, to the point of falling to Wales in the European Cup; the team without a shirt, without a title; Naive team defensively.

But Belgium has grown. He has matured. Against Japan, he was one step away from elimination. And he showed the ability to react – reborn in a game that seemed lost.

Brazil came, then the Belgian team had its best World Cup performance – which is perhaps the most important game in its history: surprised by the tactical variation, it has knew how to be mortal. He won a match that he ranked as determining for the future of this generation. He beat the opponent he treated, before and after the match, as the best team in the World Cup.

It worked. And the trend is to continue like that in the semifinals. Belgium, who already had a way of playing against worse teams than she, has shown that she can face opponents of the same level – or higher –

. case of France. Among the surviving teams of the World Cup, it is the French who seem the most ready to face Belgium. They have a strong defense, superior to the Belgian defense (as they demonstrated in the first phase and against Uruguay, after the bobaadas before Argentina); and also have interesting offensive pieces, especially Mbappé. But the offensive shots of Belgium are an badet that the French still do not have.

For Belgium, the challenge of the moment is not to allow Mbappé the given spaces in Japan and, to a lesser extent, in Brazil. Belgians have holes to cover. And Roberto Martínez will still have to organize a replacement for the right wing Meunier, suspended.

But reinventing itself does not seem to be a problem for this team as the match against Brazil shows. And as the numbers show. It is almost two years of invincibility; are 24 games without losing, with 19 wins and five draws; are 14 goals scored in Russia, the best attack of the Cup; are averaging three goals per game since Martinez took over the team after Euro 2016.

C is the second World Cup of this generation, the best that Belgium has ever had and she learned from the past. Mutant and matured, is ready to be champion – and two games, an immensity, far from him.