Marcel Desailly reviews World Cup favourites: ‘Belgium failed to get their style assessed’
Marcel Desailly is one of the ambassadors of the World Cup in Qatar. Asked by L’Equipe, he reviewed the favorites of the tournament and sees France as the main candidate for his own succession: “Regarding the numbers, it is the nation that stands out.”
In this review, Desailly pointed to Senegal as a potential surprise and above all cited Belgium among the main candidates. However, with two negative points concerning the Devils: “During the last competitions, we saw that the Belgians had a big generation. But they have a form of naivety, and a style that has not been evaluated.” Desailly explains: “They mainly played against and, despite their individual quality, did not develop an invented passing game. They also have half-hearted players: will they come back?”
On the Argentina side, the former defender remarks that Messi “never made a World Cup like Maradona in 1986”. As for Brazil, he considers the current generation less strong than that of 2002, the last to have been crowned.
He also cites Spain, which he finds technically and tactically interesting… “but when there is a physical impact, it can be more complicated.” And Portugal? “I have the feeling that they are on a downward phase.”
Before concluding by comparing the new generation of Germany … to that of the Devils in 2018: “Over time, they will give the good impression that we had with the Belgians, perhaps being more effective. “