World Cup 2018: Top 5 contenders from Europe

#4 Belgium

Belgium's Golden Generation will look to create a splash

It is now or never for Die Roten Teufel or The Red Devils as a generation of star players (at club level) are ageing fast and will be desperate to make their mark on an international tournament before most start to go into decline.

It has been an amazing time for the Belgians as a team that traditionally has had one very good player and a lot of middling plodders can now boast of having genuine world-class talent on its roster and can even afford to leave some very good players e.g. AS Roma’s Radja Nainggolan out of its squad.

A super talented team comprising of a collection of young-ish superstars was supposed to take the world by storm at the World Cup in Brazil 4 years ago and be contenders for the Euros two years later in France but on both occasions, tactical ineptitude on the part of coach Marc Wilmots saw the Belgian team fail to make a lasting impression despite getting to the quarter-finals of both competitions.

Roberto Martinez has named a preliminary 28-man squad and it is expected that the final 23-man squad will be filled with quality players.

The Chelsea duo of Eden Hazard and Thibault Courtois, Tottenham Hotspur trio of Toby Alderweireld, Jan Vertonghen and Moussa Dembele, as well as the Premier League-winning duo of Vincent Kompany and Kevin de Bruyne, are some of the star names expected to be on the Belgian team sheet and if Martinez can mould them into a coherent unit, the Red Devils have the tools to go all the way in Russia.