Vermaelen - It’s time for Belgium to deliver

Thomas Vermaelen believes that the time has come for Belgium to step up and deliver on the international stage.

The Arsenal defender comes from a country which once had an enviable World Cup record. Despite being one of Europe's smaller nations, Belgium qualified for six successive World Cup Finals from 1982 to 2002. They reached the knockout phase on five of those occasions and even finished fourth in Mexico in 1986.

Belgium were also regulars at the European Championships until the turn of the century but, in recent years, they have slipped down the international rankings and have been absent from four consecutive major tournaments.

Vermaelen will have to settle for a watching brief when this summer's World Cup gets underway before he turns his attention to the Euro 2012 qualifying campaign. The 24-year-old acknowledges that Belgium have a tough draw but he is confident that a new generation of talent - including Marouane Fellaini, Steven Defour and himself - can emulate the teams which exceeded expectations in the Eighties and Nineties.

“We’ve been drawn against Germany, Turkey, Austria, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan,” Vermaelen told the Official Matchday Programme. “We knew it wouldn’t be easy because we were in the fourth pot, so there were always going to be two difficult opponents and maybe a third.

"We know all about Germany, and know too that Turkey are strong because we played them in the World Cup qualifiers. I hear that Austria have been doing well in the younger age groups too.

"We have a talented squad as well, though, so we should be confident – and at some stage if we want to get out of that lower seeding we’ll have to win against the bigger teams.

"I think we can do that because we are now a little bit older and some of our players are playing at a higher level now. For two or three years people have been saying our squad is talented, but the results haven’t been there – but now I think we can achieve something.”

This interview first appeared in the Official Matchday Programme. You can subscribe to the Matchday Programme by calling 08700 20 20 20.

[Monday, February 15, 2010]

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