Why it is unfair and blind to say that Belgium is a wasted golden generation

SSomething ended in Düsseldorf, as Belgium lost 1-0 to France. It was a remarkable era in Belgian football, a time of audacious ambition, when a small country built an extraordinary edifice of individual talent but never managed to top it all off. Of the players who came through that period, Jan Vertonghen appears to have played his last game and Kevin De Bruyne has offered no guarantees that he will play again. That would leave only Romelu Lukaku as the last remaining remnant of the 2014 World Cup team; a generation of players who completely transformed Belgium’s stature in the sport but who seem destined to be remembered as ignominious failures.

For some, Vertonghen’s own goal will be