Belgium women's national football team

Belgium

Nickname(s)	Belgian Red Flames
Association	Belgian Football Association (KBVB/URBSFA)
Confederation	UEFA (Europe)
Head coach	Ives Serneels
Captain	Aline Zeler
Most caps	Femke Maes (84)
Top scorer	Aline Zeler, Tessa Wullaert (25)
Home stadium	King Baudouin Stadium
FIFA code	BEL
First colours Second colours
FIFA ranking
Current	28 (18 December 2015)
Highest	26 (March 2014, December 2014)
Lowest	35 (November 2010, March 2011)
First international
France 1–2 Belgium (Reims, France; May 30, 1976)

The Belgium women's national football team (nicknamed Belgian Red Flames) represents Belgium in international women's football. It is controlled by the Royal Belgian Football Association, the governing body for football in Belgium. Their home stadium is King Baudouin Stadium and their current coach Ives Serneels. During its history the team has had poor results, but has shown improvement in the Euro 2013 and 2015 World Cup Qualifiers.

As of 2015, they have not yet reached the end stage of a major tournament.

History

Early days (1976–1984)

Belgium played its first match against France on May 30, 1976, which ended in a 2–1 victory for them, the game was played at Stade Auguste Delaune in Reims, France.

A year after its debut, the Belgian Red Flames played against Switzerland and France, tying both matches 2–2 and 1–1 respectively. Their path followed in 1978, again playing with the same teams they played in 1977, beating both 1–0 and 2–0, thus following with Yugoslavia, also winning 1–0, a year later came its first defeat, 3–0 against England and other against France 2–0. Then came their first tie, against the Netherlands with a 2–2. In the following years it played mostly against European teams.

First tournaments (1984–1989)

The first qualifier Belgium participated in was in the 1984 European Competition for Women's Football in Group 4 together with the Netherlands, Denmark and West Germany. It started with a good 3–2 win against the Netherlands, but lost 1–0 against Denmark, later they achieve a draw against West Germany by 1–1. Despite having neutral goal difference, the Belgian Red Flames were beaten 5–0 by the Netherlands, his last two games against Denmark and West Germany were 2–2 and 1–1 draws. Of this way Belgium failed to qualify for the tournament.

Their second qualifier was the 1987 European Competition for Women's Football where they were in Group 3 alongside France, the Netherlands again and Sweden. Their games against France were one win and one loss, both 3–1, with Netherlands their games were defeats 3–1 and 3–0 and finally, its matches against Sweden were a bulky 5–0 loss and another defeat by 2–1, leaving Belgium without chances of qualifying for the Cup.

The time that Belgium came close to qualifying for a competition was at the tournament in 1989, where they played in Group 4 against Czechoslovakia, France, Spain and Bulgaria, disputing eight games: winning two, drawing four and losing two, with 7 goals and 4 against them and with 8 points (considering that before 1994 victories were worth 2 pts., draws 1 and defeats 0) and thus did not qualify for the competition.

Decay (1990–2011)

The Belgian team suffered a series of poor results from 1990 to 2011, although they had an improvement in the 2003 Women's World Cup Qualifiers, winning 5 games and losing one, while in the qualifications of the UEFA Women's Championship the maximum of games won during that time was 3 matches, in the 2009 edition.

Return to victories (2011–present)

A new era of victories began with the arrival of manager Ives Serneels in 2011, who led the team during good qualification campaigns for Euro 2013 and 2015 World Cup, both times ending third in the group (just short of qualifying). Following these improvements, the RBFA invested in more growth in 2015, targeting qualification for Euro 2017. After a succesful start in their qualifications group, the team were invited to play at the 2016 Algarve Cup in Portugal, one of the most prestigious women's international football events.

Players

Current squad

The following players were convocated for the Euro 2017 qualifier against Serbia on 30 November.
Caps and goals are updated as of 30 November 2015 after the previous match against Serbia.

0#0 Pos. Player Date of birth (age) Caps Goals Club 1GK Justien Odeurs (1997-05-30) 30 May 1997 9 0 Lierse 1GK Nicky Evrard (1995-05-26) 26 May 1995 12 0 Gent 1GK Diede Lemey (1996-10-07) 7 October 1996 0 0 Anderlecht 2DF Janice Cayman (1988-10-12) 12 October 1988 47 8 Juvisy 2DF Maud Coutereels (1986-05-21) 21 May 1986 48 4 Standard 2DF Laura Deloose (1993-06-19) 19 June 1993 2 0 Anderlecht 2DF Heleen Jaques (1988-04-20) 20 April 1988 55 1 Anderlecht 2DF Elien Van Wynendaele (1995-02-19) 19 February 1995 5 0 Gent 2DF Nicky Van Den Abbeele (1994-02-21) 21 February 1994 14 0 Lierse 2DF Lorca Van De Putte (1988-04-03) 3 April 1988 44 2 Kristianstads DFF 2DF Imke Courtois (1988-03-14) 14 March 1988 8 0 Standard 3MF Julie Biesmans (1994-05-04) 4 May 1994 33 2 Standard 3MF Tine De Caigny (1997-06-09) 9 June 1997 12 4 Lierse 3MF Cecile De Gernier (1986-05-25) 25 May 1986 26 5 Standard 3MF Silke Demeyere (1992-06-20) 20 June 1992 2 0 Lierse 3MF Audrey Demoustier (1985-03-17) 17 March 1985 40 4 Standard 3MF Lien Mermans (1990-09-27) 27 September 1990 36 7 Lierse 3MF Davina Philtjens (1989-02-26) 26 February 1989 39 4 Standard 3MF Marlies Verbruggen (1988-01-08) 8 January 1988 37 0 OH Leuven 3MF Justine Vanhaevermaet (1992-04-29) 29 April 1992 5 0 Lierse 4FW Jana Coryn (1992-06-26) 26 June 1992 6 0 Lierse 3MF Elke Van Gorp (1995-05-12) 12 May 1995 11 3 Lierse 4FW Tessa Wullaert (1993-03-19) 19 March 1993 37 25 Wolfsburg 4FW Sara Yüceil (1988-06-22) 22 June 1988 9 2 Standard 4FW Aline Zeler (captain) (1983-06-02) 2 June 1983 70 25 Standard

Recent call-ups

The following footballers have been selected for Belgium in the past 12 months, but are not part of the current squad.

Pos.	Player	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Goals	Club	Latest call-up
GK	Sofie Van Houtven	(1987-08-03) 3 August 1987	21	0	OH Leuven	v. Norway on 23 May 2015
DF	Jody Vangheluwe	(1997-07-15) 15 July 1997	0	0	Gent	v. Bosnia and Herzegovina on 27 October 2015
DF	Britt Vanhamel	(1995-12-29) 29 December 1995	0	0	Anderlecht	v. Bosnia and Herzegovina on 27 October 2015
MF	Davinia Vanmechelen	(1999-08-30) 30 August 1999	0	0	Standard	v. Bosnia and Herzegovina on 27 October 2015
MF	Tinne Van Den Bergh	(1995-01-14) 14 January 1995	2	0	Lierse	v. Norway on 23 May 2015
MF	Anaelle Wiard	(1991-03-23) 23 March 1991	14	5	Anderlecht	v. Norway on 23 May 2015
MF	Isabelle Iliano	(1997-03-02) 2 March 1997	1	0	Gent	v. Norway on 23 May 2015
MF	Niki De Cock	(1985-12-30) 30 December 1985	56	4	Lierse S.K.	v. South Korea on 11 March 2015
FW	Yana Daniels	(1992-05-08) 8 May 1992	22	4	FC Twente	v. South Korea on 11 March 2015
FW	Riana Nainggolan	(1988-05-03) 3 May 1988	1	0	ASD Res Roma	v. South Korea on 11 March 2015
FW	Lola Wajnblum	(1996-01-22) 22 January 1996	1	0	Anderlecht	v. Bosnia and Herzegovina on 22 September 2015

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Staff

Manager	Ives Serneels
Assistant manager	Tamara Cassimon
Goalkeeping coach	Sven Cnudde
Fitness coach	Cédric Lehance
Physiotherapist	Fabienne Van De Steene

Current campaign

The Belgian Red Flames are currently competing for qualification to the Euro 2017 championship.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Belgium	5	3	2	0	19	2	+17	11	Final tournament		—	20 Sep	1–1	6–0	6–0
2	England	4	3	1	0	11	1	+10	10	Final tournament or Play-offs		1–1	—	4 Jun	1–0	15 Sep
3	Serbia	4	2	1	1	5	2	+3	7			15 Sep	7 Jun	—	0–1	3–0
4	Bosnia and Herzegovina	6	2	0	4	5	13	−8	6			0–5	0–1	20 Sep	—	4–0
5	Estonia (E)	5	0	0	5	0	22	−22	0			3 Jun	0–8	0–1	6 Jun	—

Competitive record

Belgium has not yet reached the end stage of any major tournament. Their best qualification rounds so far (as of 2015) have been for 2003 World Cup, 2013 Euro and 2015 World Cup.

FIFA Women's World Cup

FIFA Women's World Cup record										Qualification record
Year	Round	Position	Pld	W	D*	L	GF	GA		Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA
1991	Did not qualify									6	1	0	5	1	12
1995										6	2	1	3	15	13
1999										8	0	1	7	6	23
2003										6	5	0	1	13	9
2007										8	0	0	8	8	25
2011										8	3	1	4	18	13
2015										10	6	1	3	34	11
Total	-	0/7	-	-	-	-	-	-		52	17	4	31	95	105
* Draws include knockout matches decided on penalty kicks.

UEFA Women's Championship

UEFA Women's Championship record										Qualification record
Year	Round	Position	Pld	W	D*	L	GF	GA		Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA
1984	Did not qualify									6	1	3	2	7	12
1987										6	1	0	5	6	17
1989										8	2	4	2	7	4
1991										6	1	0	5	1	12
1993										4	1	2	1	1	8
1995										6	2	1	3	15	13
1997										Belgium and 17 other nations were not part of a proper qualification group
2001										Belgium and 16 other nations were not part of a proper qualification group
2005										8	1	0	7	5	39
2009										8	3	1	4	7	15
2013										10	6	2	2	18	8
2017	To be determined									3	2	1	0	12	1
Total	-	0/11	-	-	-	-	-	-		65	20	14	31	79	129
* Draws include knockout matches decided on penalty kicks.

Records

Femke Maes

• Belgium's biggest win was against Greece (11–0) on 13 September 2014.
• Belgium's highest rank on the FIFA Women's World Rankings, officially introduced in 2003, was 26 (in March and December 2014).
• The Red Flame with the most caps is Femke Maes, who featured in the national team 84 times (7061 minutes played).
• The highest amount of goals scored by a single player is 25. This record is shared by Aline Zeler and Tessa Wullaert.

External links

• Official website
• FIFA profile
• List of international players, belgianfootball.be