Are the Red Devils ready for the big time?

Belgium’s national side has had a dreary decade, failing to qualify since 2002 for either of the two big football jamborees, the World Cup and the European Championships. There have been sporadic surges over the years – the occasional surprise result or standout performance from one player or another. But hopes of fans never quite materialised into the sustained quality needed to reach the bigger stage.

Is it tempting fate to say that this time is different?

After four matches, Belgium is now sitting at the top of its World Cup qualifying group. The Red Devils have beaten Wales, Scotland and – most impressively – Serbia, where they won 3-0 in Belgrade. (It was Serbia’s first competitive defeat on home soil since 2001.) The only slip-up was in the match against Croatia, the side most likely to vie for the top spot in the group: They drew 1-1 in Brussels.

Belgium is only ahead in the group on goal difference, +7 compared to Croatia’s +4. But it still bodes well for a side that has underperformed in recent years.

Part of the change is down to Marc Wilmots, the former Sint-Truiden and Mechelen dynamo and ex-Belgium captain, who took over as national coach this spring. Replacing the flaccid Georges Leekens, Wilmots’ drive had a galvanising effect on his charges, and they finally began to convert their much-touted potential into results.

But the players themselves are the key. This is the most exciting generation to emerge since the squad that reached the Euro 1980 final and the 1986 World Cup semi-final. No fewer than 10 of the players selected against Serbia are based in England, including Manchester City’s Vincent Kompany, Arsenal's Thomas Vermaelen, Tottenham Hotspur’s Jan Vertonghen and Moussa Dembele (pictured), Chelsea’s Eden Hazard and Everton’s Marouane Fellaini, as well as the likes of Axel Witsel from Zenit St Petersburg.

The next World Cup qualifiers are in March, when Belgium travels to Skopje to play Macedonia, before facing them again three days later in Brussels. The qualifying groups run until October next year, and there are play-offs after that for second-placed sides.

It may be too soon to assume Vertonghen and co will be in Brazil in 2014. But it’s not a fantasy either.

This article first appeared in Flanders Today