Belgium are going to qualify for next summer’s World Cup, but Saturday’s draw with Kazakhstan left Jeremy Doku questioning if there was any point turning up.
Rudi Garcia’s team travelled to Astana at the weekend and were held to a 1-1 draw by the home team.
Dastan Satpaev opened the scoring after just nine minutes before a Hans Vanaken equaliser shortly after the break.
Belgium remain undefeated and just need to beat Liechtenstein at home on Tuesday to guarantee top spot in Group J, but Doku was very frustrated with the draw against the Kazakhs.
‘We’ve already dropped too many points because we weren’t good enough in a large number of matches,’ said the Manchester City winger.
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The Belgians have won four of their seven qualifiers, also drawing home and away against North Macedonia.
Doku pointed out that star trio Romelu Lukaku, Kevin De Bruyne and Thibault Courtois were all missing in Astana, but said that it the team needs those three to beat Kazakhstan then they can forget about World Cup glory.
‘Our campaign hasn’t gone well, no. Everyone needs to do better,’ he said. ‘The coach, me, everyone. Kevin, Romelu. Thibaut, if we need them to win against Kazakhstan, then we can’t do anything at the World Cup.
‘We looked at this team and thought they would play long but then they played short and started playing football.
‘It was a completely different match than last time. Maybe we didn’t analyse our opponent enough.’
Eintracht Frankfurt defender Arthur Theate added: ‘If you feel like it, go ahead. It’s not that I disagree. But if you concede a goal, that’s the problem. If you don’t score, it’s the attack’s fault.
‘Of course, we shouldn’t have conceded that goal but we haven’t conceded many goals this campaign. Agreed, conceding three goals at home against Wales wouldn’t have been right.
‘But otherwise, we weren’t put in much danger. But you can judge for yourself. I just think we’re having a good campaign defensively.’
Assuming Belgium do the business against Liechtenstein in Liege on Tuesday, there is a straight shootout for the play-off place between Wales and North Macedonia in Cardiff.
Both nations are level on 13 points, two behind Belgium, but North Macedonia are comfortably in front of Wales on goal difference.
That means the Welsh must win to finish second, although their World Cup dream would not be dead otherwise as they will qualify for the play-offs through the Nations League.
The second-place route is preferable, though, as they will have a better seeding in the play-offs that way.