They have often ended in tears, and on one horrendous midsummer teatime it ended in teargas.
Even when they have lacked drama on the pitch, for 70 years meetings between England and Belgium have never been short of talking points, going back to a 4-4 draw at the World Cup in Switzerland in 1954.
England led their group match 3-1 with 13 minutes to go, and even after Nat Lofthouse’s second goal of the game put the Three Lions 4-3 ahead in added time, Walter Winterbottom’s men were frustrated by a Jimmy Dickinson own goal. The Three Lions were beaten 4-2 by defending champions Uruguay in the quarter-finals and, amid football’s first doping allegations, West Germany went on to win the first gold star on their shirts.
This correspondent’s first memory of Anglo-Belgian drama was the 1980 European Championship game disfigured by hooliganism in Turin.
At first, it looked a good decision by the BBC to shunt Blue Peter sideways in the Radio Times to accommodate a 4.45pm kick-off for those of us just trailing home from school. And it was all going swimmingly when Ray Wilkins’ immaculate lob put England ahead after 25 minutes.
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But the lead lasted only four minutes, and when Jan Ceulemans fired Belgium level, Our Boys took exception to Italian fans in the sparse crowd celebrating the equaliser and the occasion degenerated towards Queensberry Rules on the terraces.
The carabinieri fired shells of teargas towards the pockets of trouble behind Ray Clemence’s goal and, when fans tossed the canisters towards the pitch, play was held up for five minutes with the England goalkeeper needing treatment from physio Fred Street for streaming eyes.
Streaming: Ray Clemence needed treatment for the effects of teargasWith skipper Kevin Keegan out of sorts, possibly struggling to shake off the disappointment of Hamburg’s European Cup final defeat by Nottingham Forest two weeks earlier, England never picked up the pace again and it finished 1-1. Ron Greenwood’s side failed to reach the knockout phase of the tournament or even the third place play-off, and the BBC - who had pencilled in the game for live coverage - thought better of it, replacing football with Tommy Steele movie Half A Sixpence.
That just about summed up the nation’s enthusiasm for football when the national team was hijacked by brawling emissaries: The team was two-bob and yet it was still gazumped by a threepenny bit.
Trashed: Paul Gascoigne did not take his 1998 World Cup snub quietly (Mirrorpix)It would be 10 years before England and Belgium met again, this time in the last 16 of the Italia 90 World Cup, where David Platt’s over-the-shoulder volley from Paul Gascoigne’s pitching-wedge free-kick took England into the quarter-finals.
In truth, Platt’s last-gasp winner was as nefarious as it was spectacular. Bobby Robson’s side had been largely outplayed, requiring 40-year-old keeper Peter Shilton and the woodwork to keep them in the tournament.
And for Gazza, approaching the high-water mark of his England career, it was a happier ending than his next encounter with Belgium at the King Hassan II Cup in Morocco, a lukewarm warm-up for the 1998 World Cup finals in France. Hooked after 50 minutes of an insipid 0-0 draw, Gascoigne would discover 24 hours later that manager Glenn Hoddle had left him out of the World Cup squad altogether.
David Platt celebrates his winner against Belgium in 1990 (Daily Mirror)Gazza did not take his exclusion well, rearranging the furniture in Hoddle’s hotel room, although his pre-tournament refuelling - including scoffing a kebab in Soho on a late-night excursion with ‘celebrity’ friends who should have known better - had raised the alarm about his physical condition.
Belgium have won three of their last four encounters with England, beating Gareth Southgate ’s young side twice at the 2018 World Cup in Russia - in the group and third-place play-off. No teargas was required on either occasion.
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