between France and Belgium, a new rivalry or simple taunts between neighbors?

The Blues are playing for their qualification for the quarter-finals on Monday, against an opponent seeking revenge, having not digested the defeat in the semi-finals of the 2018 World Cup.

It’s not just about the clash of the round of 16 of the Euro, nor about a poster between two selections criticized for their performances on the field. France-Belgium is also a match driven by a recent rivalry between supporters since the semi-final of the 2018 World Cup, concluded with a narrow victory for the Blues (1-0) and the “seum” of Thibaut Courtois.

“I wouldn’t say that the team opposite was better than us. (…) Our strength is football, their strength is defending”reacted the Red Devils goalkeeper to beIN Sports, triggering a wave of mockery on social networks on the French side.

Three years later, a concert of horns in Brussels celebrated the elimination of France in the round of 16 of Euro 2021. Eliminated in the next round of the same tournament, the Belgians had the opportunity to take their revenge at in the fall, in the semi-finals of the League of Nations. But after being led 2-0, Karim Benzema, Kylian Mbappé and Theo Hernandez turned the match to the other side (3-2), reviving the resentment of Belgians whose golden generation will never have been able to win the long-awaited title.

Obviously questioned about what the France team represents for them, the players of the Belgian selection did not hide their difficulty in digesting even just the 2018 episode. “I remember it very well. I felt a lot of pain like all Belgians. Belgium could and should have won”launched Johan Bakayoko, 21 years old and too young to be on the trip to Russia at the time, but ready to put a coin back into the machine. At the start of the Tour de France, where many Belgians and French people coexist in the peloton, Remco Evenepoel predicted a 4-0 victory for the Red Devils.

As for the French players, no one wanted to enter this game. “We’re not going to look down on them”, insisted William Saliba, teammate of Leandro Trossard at Arsenal. If the actors did not blow too much on the embers, mayors and burgomasters of border towns announced the closure of roads linking France and Belgium on Monday evening in order to “prevent possible overflows”. To the point of contradicting the Belgian international Thomas Meunier, for whom this rivalry “always stay good-natured” ?

“Adversity comes more from the Belgiansexplains François Da Rocha Carneiro, a historian specializing in the history of the French team, recalling that the Blues have a 100% tournament victory record against this opponent (5/5). Whether in the World Cup, the Euro or the Nations League, France has always beaten them, sometimes even humiliating them, like at Euro 1984 (5-0) with Michel Platini’s hat-trick.”. To speak of a great rivalry, one must in a sense be “best enemies.” “Belgium is rather the Blues’ favorite opponent, the one they meet most often”analyzes the author of “A history of France in crampons” (editions du Détour, 2022).

Monday, the round of 16 will be the 76th confrontation between the two selections. For the French team, this total represents almost twice as many official matches as against any other opponent (39 against Italy and Switzerland, tied for second). 86% of these matches were played before the end of the 1980s. “This is the first opponent that the Blues met after the First World War, in 1919, when the players had not yet been demobilized. This is the only civilian team encountered in 1919. There were also matches in the interwar period and several played on November 11 in the 1950s-1960s (1954, 1956, 1966)”the historian recalls.

Basically, according to François Da Rocha Carneiro, Belgium is a bit like the playing partner you call when you need to kick the ball: “VSt’s a rivalry that amuses us with Belgian jokes, especially because there is a very close proximity, almost a fraternity between France and Belgium, which goes back to wars, to common suffering (…). It’s the family meal, we’re going to argue a little, but we’ll see each other the following week.”.