Belgium

My name is Luc Nilis I was born 25 May 1967 in Hasselt, Belgium I am former Belgian football striker. I unfortunately had to end my career early in the 2000–01 season after I broke his leg in a match when I was at Aston Villa following a clash with Ipswich Town goalkeeper Richard Wright. My Villa career had started well. I had scored on my debut in the UEFA Intertoto Cup against Dukla Příbram on 22 July 2000 and then went on to score on my league debut against Chelsea on 27 August 2000.

My former clubs include K.F.C. Winterslag, R.S.C. Anderlecht, PSV Eindhoven. During my time with PSV, I formed one of the deadliest partnerships in Europe with team-mate Ruud van Nistelrooy. In the 1998–1999 season, Between myself and van Nistelrooy scored 55 league goals between them. van Nistelrooy finished as top-scorer, I came second. In the following season, my last for PSV, we scored 48 league goals between us.

Ronaldo occasionally names me as one of the best strike partners he had played with despite sharing only a brief time with me at PSV. Ruud van Nistelrooy has also stated on several occasions that I was one of the best players, if not the best, he had ever played with.

I played 56 times for the Belgian national team, scoring 10 times. A prolific goal scorer with my clubs, I scored his first goal for Belgium only on my 24th cap (a 9–0 win against Zambia). I played in the 1994 World Cup, the 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000, the latter was co-hosted by my birth-country Belgium and the Netherlands.

After my playing career, I was assigned as a trainer with PSV. In this job I was responsible for training the attackers of the club. In January 2011, I became assistant manager at Kasımpaşa Spor Kulübü. But now I have been given the greatest opportunity in my life I have Been Given the job of managing my Country Belgium.

My first action after taking the hot seat as Belgium’s manager was to attend a press conference announcing that I was taking over. One of the questions I was asked was “Am I going to be keeping Vincent Kompany as my captain” and my answer was logical and completely obvious “Yes”.


I have dismissed all my backroom staff from the positions they were filling with no exceptions I have now appointed.

Harald Gamperle As my assistant manager


Rene Peeters As my under 21’s manager who I have given control of hiring his own staff to assist him in duties.


Joel Magnin as my under19’s manager who I have also given control of hiring his own staff


Wlodzmierz Lubanski as a coach


Lieven Maesschalck as my physio


Pierre Thijssen as my goalkeeping coach.

My first test is against Wales at the Stade Maurice Dufrasne followed up by a tricky away match versus Serbia at the Stadion Crvena Zvezda Marakana in World Cup Group A Qualifiers , This will be the first test of the new look Belgium squad that I have picked.



Thibault Courtois, I believe will be Belgian number 1 for many years to some but Simon Mignolet is not too far behind and I hope can challenge Courtois into playing well to keep his place.

I have worked out that my strongest position is centre back so I have decided on starting with 3 at the back first of all my Captain Vincent Kompany with Jan Vertognen to his right and Thomas Vermaelen to his left. If all 3 play together as well as they play individually they could be the backbone of this team.

I have plumped for Anthony Vanden Borre at RWB he the second youngest ever player to put on a Belgian national team shirt and has shown a lot of promise from a very early age.

At LWB I have gone for the inexperienced Jordan Lukaku, I have taken an interest in his career since he was 13, showing that big brother Romelu isn’t the only one with talent

In Defensive Midfield I have decided Marouanne Feillaini, one of the strongest most physical players I have witness play, I am hoping I can keep control of his discipline the only flaw in his game at all probably future captain and VC material.

I have gone for the nation’s most valuable player in monetary term in Axel Witsel recently bought by Zenit St Petersburg for £35 million, I am hoping the price tag that has been put on him doesn’t affect his game, he will be playing a deep lying play maker role.

For my wingers I decided to go with Dries Martens and Eden Hazard both have lightning pace and great technical ability, will be looking for them to keep full backs busy by swapping over and making a complete nuisance of themselves, I am also going to see If I can get them both more accomplished at crossing the ball into the Centre Forward(s)

As my lone striker my first choice is Romelu Lukaku to start with he is a giant of player who is still young, with a lot to learn I hope I can be the man to help develop him into one the best strikers in the world the potential is there but it will all depend on how much he wants it. He isn’t necessarily guaranteed his place as Christian Benteke and Kevin Mirallas will be breathing down his neck to make sure he plays to keep his role.

Subs Bench
Simon Mignolet (GK)
Ritchie De Laet (RB)
Radja Nainggolan (CDM)
Giuseppe Rossini (ST)
Steven Defour (CM)
Steve De Ridder (AMR)
Kevin Mirallas (ST)

Reserves
Sammy Bossut (GK)
Igor De Camargo (ST)
Nicolas Lombaerts (CB)
Gaby Mudingayi (CM)
Roland Lamah (AMR/L)


From my first week in charge I have drilled through the national pool and have found there to be some amazing young talent out there with my new backroom team I am hoping that one day Belgium will be the best footballing nation in the world, a lot of hard work will be needed but I am willing to put it in.

One thing I forgot to mention was the nation’s current standing in the world when I took over Belgium are currently ranked 37th in the world, 29 places behind main rival Holland who are currently ranked number 8, 36 and 28 places behind other rivals Germany and France respectively With Germany currently the top ranked nation in the world.





Our first match was against Wales, I had received some bad news previous to this match that Steve De Ridder and Ivan De Camargo were to be out of the squad injured, and that Marouanne Feillaini wouldn’t be available for the Wales game but would be back in time for Serbia. I was allowed to call up 2 replacements for my squad in which I was able to bring back Thomas Vermaelen who was previously unavailable through injury and also left back cover in Bart Buysse.

With this I had some tinkering to do in my starting eleven bringing in Steven Defour of the bench for Feillaini and re-instating Vermaelen in the place of Toby Alderweireld.



Match Report

We started off brilliantly with a quick and fast tempo to the opening exchanges and it upset the Welsh defence with James Collins getting a booking inside the very first minute. We continued in this vain and we were rewarded early on when Anthony Vanden Borre scored a belter from the edge of the right hand side of the box into the keepers’ bottom left hand corner.



We attacked straight from the Wales restart and attacked down the right wing with Neil Taylor getting booked for a bad tackle on Eden Hazard in the 7th minute. This carried on for the next 15-20 minutes with Wales rarely getting into our half, Then in the 23rd minute we got a corner Hazard took the corner and Jan Vertonghen climbed the highest and headed the ball past Boaz Myhill.



After this the Wales went on the attack a bit more and Maarten Maartens received a yellow for a late challenge on Angel Rangel and Axel Witsel for the same reason on Aaron Ramsey their attack kept coming and they managed to get a goal back through a Steve Morison Header in the 37th minute.

The second half was poor and a bit drab we remained solid defensively but also received two more yellow cards one for Vincent Kompany and one for Jan Vertonghen.
Man of the Match was given to Jan Vertonghen.

Our Next Match was against Serbia we were going into the match with high confidence after a sound victory against Wales. The only change I decided to make was to bring back in Marouanne Feillaini for Steven Defour .

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Match Report

The match was a drab game in all honesty with Serbia nicking a goal in the 48th minute through Nikola Zigic. We did attack slightly more than Serbia but found a brick wall in Neven Subotic who received the Man of the Match award.



We are currently in 4th place in our qualifying group after 2 games with only Croatia gaining maximum points in our group only goal difference separates us with Wales, Serbia and FYR Macedonia with Scotland bottom of the group losing both matches the played this international break.



When we return will be facing FYR Macedonia at home, followed up by an away fixture against Scotland.

I received a telephone call last month from Mousa Dembele he wondering why he hadn’t been included in my first match squad for the games against Wales and Serbia, I explained to him that because of his recent transfer from Fulham to Tottenham he hadn’t been first choice midfielder at his new club and for me to pick him he had to prove himself on the main stage each week so that meant he had to be Tottenham’s main man too.

He hasn’t yet managed to make a first team appearance but due to Steven Defour’s poor form I have decided to call him to the 23 man squad for the games against FYR Macedonia and Scotland.



A change that I have been forced into was because of an injury to Jan Vertonghen so in replacement I have called to the squad Kevin De Bruyne who has been impressing on his loan at Werder Bremen from Chelsea FC.

I have decided against re-calling Ivan De Camargo instead I have brought back young striker Christian Benteke in to the fold.




My attended a press conference about the up and coming matches and received some criticism for my selection especially the leaving out of Daniel Van Buyten, to which I explained to the media that he is 34 and nearing the end of his career and that I am building a team for the future.



Some of the media are worried that because the squad has an average age of only 23 we might struggle to which my reply was how else are they going to learn we are a young developing country with 3 or 4 of the most exciting youngsters in their positions in the world, Just look at my goalkeeper Thibault Courtois already recognized as in the top 15 goal keepers in the world at the tender age of 20.

Well first up was FYR Macedonia who I expected to convincingly beat on home soil.





Match Report

We won the toss and decided to play towards our fans the first half the match was pretty dire for the first 15 minutes with no-one claiming control of the match when suddenly Romelu Lukaku searched out Hazard to his right, he then picked up the ball and sprinted past Lazevski and straight by Savic all in the same move, he then preceded into releasing a savage left footed strike but the Macedonian keeper was a match to it and parried it away only for Dries Mertens to come following in, reacting faster than anyone else and placed it in the net, great play from Hazard to make the goal.

3 minutes later Ristic trying to recover another mistake from Savic the defender who let Hazard past for the goal deliberately handled the ball and receives a yellow card. The battle between Hazard and Savic intensified and fed up with being man marked Hazard pushes Savic and received a yellow from violent conduct.

In the second half it looked like was heading for a boring 1-0 victory for us but suddenly Dries Mertens picked up the ball 20 yards out from goal and turned and drilled a shot in at goal from the left hand side of the pitch leaving Bogatinov sprawling across his goal with no luck and was 2-0 divine inspiration some call it I call it magical.

Only 3 minutes later Hazard sprinted past Lazevski yet again, he then managed to float in a cross to near post from the right, Romelu Lukaku headed it across goal Bogatinov pulled off a world class save only for it parry of the cross bar and hit him in the back on the way back down an unfortunate O.G for him but a great goal for us just when we needed to kill the game off. That exactly was it the game was killed off and died out neither team really threatening the other’s goal.

Dries Mertens was later voted Man of the Match.



This put us in great stead for the up and coming away trip to Hampden Park to play Scotland. After this I didn’t make any changes for the Scotland game.






Match Report

We headed to Scotland with good confidence after the Macedonian victory hoping we would do the same to Scotland. The match started well with both teams doing well defensively neither wanting to lose it had nearly reached the half hour mark and Jordan Lukaku got the ball on the left hand side played the ball forwards but Wallace got in the way and headed the ball out for a corner. Eden Hazard tried an in-swinging corner to which Vermaelen wanted it more than anyone and headed the ball past Craig Gordon.

7 minutes later Scotland sneaked a corner, Charlie Adam whipped in the corner David Goodwillie jumped above Feillaini and put the ball in the back of the net.

In the 43rd minute Goodwillie had picked up the ball ran at Kompany and Kompany just clattered in the centre forward the referee pointed straight to the spot. Naismith took the penalty and scored.

Second half things just got worse for us Kompany lost Goodwillie again he took a shot towards top left corner it hit the crossbar and he then volleyed the ball past Courtois and scored a glorious goal.

With this I decided to drag Kompany off he was truly awful his head just wasn’t in the game. I also took off Dries Mertens for Christian Benteke and switched to a 4-2-1-2.

It only took 11 minutes before Hazard played the ball forwards toward Feillaini but was a bit over hit Feillaini stretched out for a diving header and met the ball with precious to send it flying into the back of the net.

We then hit Scotland on the counter attack many times as we were looking for the elusive equaliser it finally came in the form of an own goal from Liam Bridcutt another dangerous Hazard corner and substitute Nicolas Lombaerts headed the ball, it was going wide until a nasty deflection sent it past the defender on the near post.

I couldn’t believe it we were back in the game 3-1 down back to 3-3 least if we hold out we can take a point back to Belgium but the match was far from over. Mousa Dembele picked up the ball on the halfway line played a divine through ball for Lukaku to latch onto he drove in low at the goal Gordan left stranded by the power 4-3 !!! amazing

Scotland changed to a 4-2-4 to try and salvage a draw but we hit them on the counter another Dembele one two with Eden Hazard and bang it was 5-3 truly remarkable for such a come-back from my young kids who the media said had no chance I told them after the match it would shut up a lot of their critics and they should be extremely proud of their efforts.
After all his industry tonight and sublime work Eden Hazard was voted Man of the Match.



Back to back wins was amazing and has left us in second place in our qualifying group be it on goal difference and level on points with Wales and Croatia who we are yet to play but we are now a team to beat I hope the young lads can carry this on and take it up yet another gear.



I am now off home to Mrs Nilis one happy man.


My wife.