After losing 1-0 against Italy on Thursday, Belgium will face a difficult battle to qualify for group B at Euro 2025 while they will then face the world champions of Spain and could leave if they lose and Italy was beating Portugal. But in the 32 -year -old prolific attacker Tessa Wullaert, they have a player who is used to breaking borders and doing things.
The Red Flames, currently ranked 20th in the world, only play in their third European championship. But this is their third consequence after 2017 and 2022 – they even reached the quarterfinals the last time – and this is largely down to have the record scorer of all time in the country leading the line as captain.
In February, Wullaert directed her team to an unfathomable 2-0 advance against Spain in 72 minutes in the League of Nations; A result that if he had held. would have sent shock waves through the continent. Instead, Spain leveled the match in the 92nd minute before breaking the Belgian hearts with a dramatic winner in the 96th.
This defeat has wreaked havoc in the next day. Defeat against Portugal and England followed a 3-2 historical victory against the lionesses in Leuven before a return. Wullaert stole the show, when she scored twice and helped Justine Vanhaevermaet in the first 30 minutes.
After a 5-1 defeat against Spain, two other Wullaert goals followed a 3-0 victory in Portugal who helped Belgium overcome his opponents to finish third in their group of the League of Nations. And, in the preparation of euros, she caught another in a 2-0 friendly victory against Greece to score her 93rd international goal.
“If you had asked me 93 goals there if I thought I could have scored 100 goals for my country, I would not have believed you,” Wullaert in ESPN told the Belgian training camp in Saillon. “I had no specific target when I started playing [for my country]But now that I’m at 93 and I’m getting closer to 100, of course, I think about it now.
“I have never really set myself a target; I have always just tried to go from one game to another, but I always pushed myself as much as possible. But being the first male or female Belgian player to reach 100 goals would be pretty cool.”
Wullaert has already made history. In 2016, she exceeded Aline Zeler as the top Belgian female scorer. In October 2024, she reached 85 goals, equaling the Romelu Lukaku record for the men’s team. And his 86th came a month later against Ukraine, earned him a pair of gold -plated boots from the Belgian FA to celebrate his distinction.
When Wullaert scored her first international goal in August 2011 against Russia, she played for her first club, SV Zulte Waregem, and combined her training with an internship while studying for a baccalaureate diploma in tourism. While she was also good in tennis, she decided that a team sport was better suited to her personality. “I am super critical of myself, so an individual sport was not the right thing for me,” she admits.
However, his decision to continue football had a cost. She had to travel up to four hours, five times a week to go to training, often by herself, while balancing her studies at the same time. After training, she led guided tours around Louvain to finish her course.
However, due to the low level of women’s football in Belgium, she was forced to move abroad to continue her dreams. She joined the German giants VFL Wolfsburg in 2015 and was a success. She won two Bundesliga titles and three DFB-Pokal titles, and appeared in two finals of the UEFA Champions League during her three seasons, but had trouble adapting to her land and told the Belgian brand the Michaux: “I was often alone, surviving: the only people I saw during the ‘work’ ‘and the free time were my teammates and staff.”
A move to Manchester City followed in 2018 and, although it was another two -year stay far from her boyfriend and family, she won a FA Cup and a double of the League Cup during her first season. Wullaert scored six goals in 31 games in the female Super League, but it was her next spells at home in Anderlecht, then at La Fortuna Sittard on the Dutch side that really made him shoot. Between 2020 and 2024, she scored 108 league goals in just 84 games.
A move to Inter in 2024 saw him score 10 goals in 23 games and help the team qualify for the Champions League for the first time in their history following second place in Serie A (their highest arrival.) However, Wullaert admits that she would like to feel this feeling winning in international service.
“We [Belgium] Know that we have the qualities, but we have to bring them together as a group and believe in the game plan. All we can do is live a game in a match and see where it takes us, “she said.” This is only the third time that we have reached the euros in our history, so we must be proud to qualify in the first place.
“What we did when we got here, and we qualify for the euros three times in a row is to create a base by which it is now the minimum wait for Belgium to qualify for these competitions, because it is not an easy thing to do.”
It is clear that Belgium is increasing from football and female conditions, since the Royal Belgian Football Association (RBFA) revealed that its strategic plan of the “world at our feet” in 2019.
“It is difficult to know what it will be at home,” explains Wullaert. “During the last euros, some of our natal cities were decorated with big screens so that people can watch the games. I don’t know what will happen this summer, but I hope everyone will get behind us and show us a certain support.
“Many things have changed since then, so it is difficult to say how far we could go this time. Our ambition, like never, is to win each game. If you have this state of mind at any time, you never know what could happen. We know that each game will be difficult, and we know what to expect from Spain and Portugal, having played the two in the league.”
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How Italy has won the first opening victory for euros since 2009
Take a look at the 1-0 victory figures from Italy against Belgium in their first Euro 2025 game.
The defeat against Italy leaves Denmark with all this to do against Spain and Portugal, but Wullaert thinks that Belgium remains capable of beating anyone.
“Anything can happen in these games,” she said. “I think that because we beat Portugal 3-0 the last time we played them, people think it will be easy. But the game before that, they beat us, so it will be on who will appear on the day of the match.”
What is clear is that if Belgium has to reverse their hope of progressing, Wullaert will have to help inspire his front team.
“Being a captain is a great responsibility, of course,” she adds. “The players look at you in all the great moments. I really appreciate, both on and off the field. I am lucky that we have a team of captains, so even if I mainly bring leadership on the field, the other girls do it on the field and that we work well as a group together. We are a close team and we can hear each other. solution.
“When the matches arrive, it is also my work as an attacker is to score and create goals. I had a good match the last time we played in Portugal, and I scored in this first match against Spain, but that does not mean that it will go in the same way this time.
In truth, Belgium is in a way a paradox. On the one hand, they flourish by being a small nation in which players can easily make spotlights. On the other, they want to grow and push the best nations.
“We are very lucky that Belgium is a small country. Far from the games, we can go home and have time with our family or friends in a way that other nations probably cannot,” she said. “It is something that the coach and the players think really important. It is the second consecutive summer that we have been busy, and it can therefore mean long far from the people who care the most. Having time with friends and family is really important.
“At the same time, we want to go as far as possible while we are here, and we take this state of mind in each match. The standard of teams of these matches is so high that if we do not concentrate and on our game, there is the potential to undergo a heavy defeat. We have already experienced these teams in Spain.
“For us to succeed and progress, we need the 11 players to be on it.
