Belgium prepare for Euro 2025 with new hopes on the horizon as the European tournament draws increasingly near.
The nation’s run to the quarter finals in England at EURO 2022 was their best showing yet and has built expectations at home previously unheard of. And yet with quality in their ranks there is every chance Belgium could repeat the feat this time around.
At The Halfway Line we take a detailed dive into the Red Flames chances in Switzerland this summer.
Taliswoman Tessa poised to shine at EURO 2025
Tessa Wullaert is, put simply, the best to ever do it in a Red Flames jersey. Wullaert is Belgium’s all time top goal scorer, a record she broke as far back as 2016. Captain of the national team, Wullaert has astonishingly scored eight hat tricks for Belgium. Lioness fans will remember her this year she helped mastermind the Red Flames stunning upset against England scoring twice in an eye catching win. In 2023 when the two sides met in the Nations League, Wullaert also scored twice in a victory by the same score line.
In February this year Wullaert won the award for best player from Belgium for the fifth time. She earned more than double the points for victory than second placed Marie Detruyer also of Inter Milan.
Wullaert’s career has been varied. She has played for big club sides like Wolfsburg and Manchester City, lifting the Frauen Budesliga with the former. She has not always had things her own way, she left City in 2020 after scoring 10 goals in 53 appearances. Wullaert returned to Belgium in search of form and found it, scored an astounding 72 goals in 50 matches for Anderlecht before moving to Fortuna Sittard where she managed a similar total, winning Eredivisie Player of the Year in 2023-24.
Her form earned her a move to Inter Milan last summer where she helped Inter to their highest ever finish and qualification for the UEFA Women’s Champions League for the first time. The Belgian captain had a wonderful season in Italy, she was Inter’s top scorer and outperformed her XG in the league by 3.5.
If you’d like to see Wullaert summed up in one move, look up the highlights to Belgium’s second leg victory over Ukraine in the EURO 2025 play offs. Her outrageous backheel assist to Mariam Toloba to open the scoring is a thing of beauty. A Wullaert on form is a real worry for the rest of Europe this summer.
Did you know? Wullaert’s dog’s name is Jean-Marie Waff (woof in Belgian) named after former Belgium men’s keeper Jean-Marie Pfaff.
Belgium’s defensive dilemmas ahead of Euro 2025
The Red Flames have endured somewhat patchy defensive form in the past few years. Four clean sheets in their last 30 matches will be cause for concern for new head coach ElÃsabet Gunnarsdóttir. But the Icelander will be confident Belgium have the talent to amend that record.
When centre back Amber Tysiak last featured at a European Championships she was not a professional footballer, she was a school teacher and by all accounts a popular one at that. Three years on and she has just enjoyed the best season of her now professional football career in the Barclays Women’s Super League. Starting in a West Ham side that lit up the league at times and pleasantly surprised more than a few. She is a mainstay in the Belgium defence and is one of the first names on the team sheet for the Red Flames. Complemented by Sari Kees and Laura Delouse at the back, Gunnarsdóttir will hope with that combination comes defensive solidity.
When Belgium qualified for the last European Championships Tine De Caigny was the top scorer in all of qualifying but her presence is not as vital in an attacking sense as it once was. She has been used to bolster the defence more recently, providing the Red Flames with another dimension. A offensive player with an attacking outlook.
Further back between the posts, Nicky Evrard and Lisa Lichtfus will battle it out for the number one shirt this summer. With both playing three matches each in the Nations League in 2025 so far it is clear that their head coach was sizing them up. Evrard has the major tournament experience, it was her penalty save that denied Wendie Renard at EURO 2022.
However Lichtfus of Le Harve was the more recent number one under their former head coach and played every minute of EURO 2025 qualifying. Lichtfus has also played more recently for Belgium and only conceded three in three matches in 2025 as opposed to the 13 in three matches that Evrard has conceded. Lichtfus looks the more likely option to start.
Belgium players to watch at Euro 2025
Six foot one former Everton midfielder, Justine Vanhaevermaet is a huge asset to Belgium in a multitude of ways but especially from set pieces. Alongside Tysiak she is a potent aerial threat for the Red Flames. Vanhaevermaet was the only player in the Barclays Women’s Super League last season to contest more than 50 aerial challenges and win more than 75 percent of them.
Two times a Champions League winner with Lyon Janice Cayman has since moved to Leicester and has excelled on English shores. Cayman scored a goal of the season contender for the Foxes against Aston Villa at the King Power Stadium in February taking aim from a distance she had no right to score from. Do not be surprised to see the net bulge this summer if she takes aim from outside the box. When Cayman earned her 112th cap, which was the most any Belgian player had ever earned at the time, she invited 112 girls to celebrate with a day of football. A class act.
Looking closer to home for Belgium, winner of the Belgian Pro League’s Player of the Season for 2025 was Mariam Toloba. Toloba is an exciting striker who often combines well with captain Wullaert at international level. Toloba scored the only goal in the cup final against her former club Anderlecht whom she moved to Standard Liege from in search of regular minutes last season. She has scored big goals in the past year for Belgium including strikes against Ukraine and Spain. Toloba recently signed for FC Nantes for the upcoming season.
Young players like Marie Detruyer, Hannah Eurlings and Jill Janssens offer an attacking bite complemented by a youthful invention going forward. Féli Delacauw like Janssens is another bright young spark whose move to Germany via Hoffenheim this season has helped her to gain more experience at the top level ahead of this summer.
Across Europe’s top five leagues Serie A has the highest representation of Belgian talent, and it has proven to be a happy hunting ground for them this year. Both Detruyer of Inter Milan and Elena Dhont rank in the top three for goal creating actions in Serie A this season. Dhont of Sassuolo created nine big chances in Serie A this season, three more than any other player in the Italian top flight.
The Icelandic head coach looking to take Belgium to the next level
After Chelsea announced that Emma Hayes was leaving the Blues last year and the search had begun for her replacement, there was much excitement about a reported three person shortlist. Presumably on that list was the successful candidate, Sonia Bompastor but as reported at the time by sports journalist Amanda Zaza, the little known outside of Scandinavia, Icelandic coach ElÃsabet Gunnarsdóttir was also on it.
That goes some way towards demonstrating her pedigree. But Gunnarsdóttir was destined to succeed another dynasty, that of Ives Serneels who led Belgium for 14 years before Serneels final act as head coach, qualification for EURO 2025. While Gunnarsdóttir was not the head coach that got Belgium to the finals, she has come within minutes of beating Spain this year and out thought Sarina Wiegman in a 3-2 victory over the Lionesses just a couple of months ago.
Gunnarsdóttir started her managerial career in 2003 as head coach of Icelandic side Valur, leading the side to four Icelandic league titles in five years. Following that domestic success she moved to Sweden to coach Kristianstads DDF whom she coached for 14 years.
She has previous experience at international level having coached Iceland’s under 21s and been assistant manager for the national team. The head coach is ready for the challenge, upon her appointment in January she affirmed, “I believe we can achieve great things.”
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Red Flames matches are shown by national broadcasters VRT/Sporza and RTBF. VRT/Sporza airs them for the Flemish north of the country and RTBF for the South. RTBF recently reached an historic agreement with the Belgian FA to broadcast all the Red Flames matches on their main channel La Une until 2029.
- Despite qualifying for their third European Championships in a row, Belgium have never qualified for the FIFA Women’s World Cup.
- Back in 2015, Belgian striker Mariam Toloba was nominated for UEFA’s Goal of the Season award for a sensational goal against Wales in qualifying for the Under 17s EUROs. She was the only woman nominated that year alongside nine men, among them were Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and one Kevin De Bruyne. De Bruyne and Toloba made history that year as the first Belgians to ever be nominated for the award.
Spotlight on a Belgium legend: Fabienne Van De Steene
In the early 1990s Belgium were a budding women’s football nation, they had only been playing international fixtures for 16 years and had not yet been given their nickname of the Red Flames. In 1993 physiotherapist Fabienne Van De Steene joined what was a skeleton staff at the national team. At the time it was essentially just her and the then head coach Marc Van Geersom supporting the players and running the team. Over 30 years later Van De Steene remained in the role, through thick and thin and a major tournament debut for Belgium.
When she started out not all women’s teams in Europe were provided access to adequate physiotherapy and recovery expertise, some still aren’t. The service of these type of pioneers was and remains so vital to the growth of the game. In 2024 Van De Steene retired and was presented with flowers and given a guard of honour by the Belgian first team before facing Spain.
Record against EURO 2025 group opponents
Belgium were recently drawn into a UEFA Nations League Group that included two of their Group B opponents, Spain and Portugal. In Valencia this year, Belgium faced Spain following a disappointing 1-0 defeat to Portugal. After some hairy early moments including a clearance off the line from Justine Vanhaevermaet, a mistake from Irene Paredes gifted Mariam Toloba the chance to fire home the opener, she duly complied to give Belgium the lead in the match. With 18 minutes to play and Belgium still leading they did the unthinkable and doubled their advantage. Claudia Pina pulled one back in the 78th minute before Spain scored twice after the 90th minute to claim victory.
A 5-1 win for Spain in Leuven a couple of months later was a more convincing showing from the world champions but Belgium demonstrated their ability to cause the Spanish issues. Belgium then defeated Portugal 3-0 in a convincing end to their Nations League campaign earlier this month.
As for Italy, Belgium faced Le Azzure in the EURO 2022 group stage, the group came down to the final day with Belgium and Italy facing each other knowing that a win for either would likely send them through. De Caigny’s low drilled shot just after half time was enough to send Belgium through to a first ever major tournament knockout match despite both sides rattling the woodwork before the final whistle.
Belgium’s goal for the tournament
Prior to the draw, repeating the feat of a quarter final would likely have been the aim. Since the draw has been made and despite being placed in a tricky group, it would be surprising if the Red Flames were not now feeling a touch more ambitious.
Should Belgium qualify from their group they will face either Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Finland. These are all teams they know they can go toe to toe with and prevail. A semi final spot is not out of the question.
