Brussels, May 30 (IANS) Belgium football head coach Rudi Garcia has shown firm belief in his side to achieve great things as they gear up for their fourth consecutive FIFA World Cup appearance.

Belgium are placed in Group G with Egypt, Iran and New Zealand, and the 62-year-old coach has set a clear goal of coming out on top in the group stage and securing a favourable draw for the next round.

“We need to distinguish between our objective and our ambition. Our priority is to get through the group stage. Let’s come out on top so that we earn a more favourable draw and, ideally, stay put [in Seattle for the Round of 32]. That will be the objective!” Garcia told FIFA in an interview.

Belgium suffered a shocking group-stage exit at the Qatar 2022 World Cup but are in a much better place in the ongoing tournament, as their opponents are less experienced than they are. With 14 World Cup campaigns already under their belt, they possess vastly greater pedigree on the global stage than the rest of the group combined, eclipsing Egypt’s three, Iran’s six and New Zealand’s two appearances to date.

Although the odds appear to be in their favour, Garcia is taking nothing for granted. “We have a huge amount of respect for the other three sides in our group,” he stressed. “This is what the World Cup is all about. We know Egypt well; they’re one of the best teams in Africa. I know all about Mo Salah as I coached him at Roma. We’re also up against a team from Oceania and one from Asia. We’re obviously less familiar with them as we don’t see them play as often, but we’re looking forward to finding out what the Iranian and New Zealand teams are made of.”

“Let’s start by respecting our group-stage opponents. Let’s beat them, finish top of the group, and then we’ll see how far we can go,” he added.

Garcia may be ambitious, but he is certainly under no illusions about the task ahead, well aware that Belgium – sitting ninth in the FIFA World Ranking ahead of their final warm-up matches – have lost some of their lustre since their legendary run in 2018.

“For six years – maybe longer – Belgium topped the FIFA rankings. The team dubbed the ‘golden generation’ were tipped as the frontrunners to win at both Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022, but ultimately fell short on both occasions. The picture is very different these days. We’ll just be the underdogs, but I don’t mind that – in fact, I prefer it,” he said.

Nevertheless, the Red Devils’ coach concluded with a defiant message: “We should fear nobody, that’s for sure. I’ve already told the players: we have to believe we can go toe-to-toe with any team.”

–IANS

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