Trossard Emerges As Belgium’s Spark Man

Leandro Trossard has created more chances than any other player at this World Cup. Two goals, two assists, and a level of consistency nobody expected from Belgium’s supporting cast now sit alongside the more familiar names of Romelu Lukaku and Kevin De Bruyne on the team sheet. As Belgium prepare to face Spain in Friday’s quarter-final in Los Angeles, the Arsenal winger has quietly become the player his team-mates rely on most.

Belgium reached this stage by beating the United States 4-1 in the round of 16, a scoreline built on two first-half headers from Charles De Ketelaere, the second of which came from a Trossard cross that hung in the air long enough for the Atalanta forward to nod home at the back post. Hans Vanaken and Lukaku added second-half goals to complete the win. It was Belgium’s most comfortable performance of the tournament, arriving straight after a last-32 tie against Senegal they very nearly lost.

From Two Goals Down to Comfortable Winners

Belgium’s route to the quarter-finals has swung between crisis and control. They drew their first two group games against Egypt and Iran before beating New Zealand 5-1 to finish top of Group G. Then, in the last 32 against Senegal, they found themselves two goals down with four minutes left, only to score twice and win with a goal in the 125th minute of extra time. The performance against the USA that followed was a different animal entirely, routine from an early stage and settled well before half-time.

That contrast counts for a great deal heading into a quarter-final against a Spain side that has conceded nothing at this World Cup. Belgium cannot expect Spain to offer the space that Senegal or the USA did in Belgium’s most productive spells. Whatever margin for error existed against those two opponents will not exist on Friday.

Trossard’s Case for the Team Sheet

Before this tournament, Trossard’s international career had been steady rather than spectacular. Five games into the World Cup, he has scored twice, set up two more, and created more chances than any other player at the tournament. Against the USA, his cross for De Ketelaere’s second goal was typical of the service he has provided all summer, delivered with enough precision that a header was the only finishing touch required.

De Ketelaere himself has strengthened his own case for a starting role with two goals and an assist in that same match. Standing at 6ft 4in and finishing predominantly with his left foot, he offers Belgium a different profile to Lukaku, one that could cause particular trouble against Spain at set pieces and from crosses. With Trossard supplying the service and De Ketelaere finishing it, Belgium have found a secondary source of goals that did not exist at the start of the tournament.

Lukaku’s own contribution should not be understated. He has scored three times and remains Belgium’s most direct route to goal when games open up. Between Lukaku’s finishing, Trossard’s creativity and De Ketelaere’s aerial threat, manager Rudi Garcia now has attacking options that stretch beyond the two players most had expected to define Belgium’s tournament.

De Bruyne and Doku Still Searching

Not every senior player has found form. It would have seemed unthinkable a year ago that Kevin De Bruyne and Jeremy Doku would be substituted in the 56th minute of a World Cup game while two goals down against Senegal, yet that is exactly what happened. De Bruyne was an unused substitute in the win over the USA, and Doku has yet to register a single goal involvement at the tournament.

Their form, or lack of it, has become one of the quieter storylines of Belgium’s campaign. Youri Tielemans has played a significant part in keeping his side in the competition through the group stage and the Senegal comeback, but the two players many expected to carry Belgium’s creative burden have instead watched Trossard take on that responsibility. Whether De Bruyne and Doku rediscover their level against Spain, or whether Garcia leans further into the Trossard-De Ketelaere axis that worked so well against the USA, will shape how Belgium set up in Los Angeles.

Belgium’s High-Turnover Threat

Belgium have built one of the tournament’s most effective pressing games. They have registered 15 shots from winning the ball back in the final third, almost double the total of the next best side, and four of their goals have come directly from those high turnovers, the most of any team at the World Cup. It is an approach built on winning the ball high and moving quickly, one that has repeatedly caught opponents before they could reorganise.

Whether Garcia trusts that same aggression against Spain is the central question of Friday’s quarter-final. Spain’s approach is built on patient possession, and pressing a team that keeps the ball as comfortably as Luis de la Fuente’s side carries obvious risk. Retreat into a deeper block instead, though, and Belgium risk surrendering the same territory that let Spain wear down Portugal in the previous round.

The Test Spain Represents

Spain have not conceded a single goal at this World Cup, the only side yet to do so. Their expected-goals-against figure of 1.49 is the lowest of any team at the tournament, and they have faced just five shots on target across five matches. Mikel Merino’s late winner sent them past Portugal in the round of 16, following a run through the group stage that included an opening 0-0 draw with Cape Verde and a 3-0 win over Austria that stood as their best performance of the tournament to that point.

That defensive record makes Belgium’s attacking improvement all the more significant. A Belgium side that relied solely on moments of Lukaku brilliance would have found few openings against a defence built around Pau Cubarsi and Aymeric Laporte. A Belgium side that can call on Trossard’s service and De Ketelaere’s finishing, in addition to Lukaku’s movement, arrives with more than one way of testing a defence that has not been breached all summer.

Belgium’s best finish, going back to their third-place run in 2018, is within reach if they can find a way through. Trossard, a player who was not the headline act when this tournament began, has become the reason Belgium believe they can.

What Friday Would Decide

A win over Spain would put Belgium into their first World Cup semi-final after that 2018 run in Russia, when Eden Hazard and Kevin De Bruyne led a team many still regard as the finest in the country’s history. This group has a different profile. Where that side leaned on individual brilliance from a small core of elite players, this one has needed contributions from further down the squad to survive Senegal and put away the USA in comfortable fashion.

Garcia’s selection dilemma for Friday extends beyond Trossard and De Ketelaere. Vanaken’s goal against the USA offered another reminder that Belgium’s depth runs deeper than the doubts around De Bruyne and Doku suggest, and Tielemans continues to offer control in midfield that keeps the team difficult to break down even when the front line misfires. Facing Spain’s defence will test all of it at once, in a way Senegal and the USA never could.

Belgium’s route to this quarter-final has already asked different questions of Garcia’s squad than most people expected in June. The group stage draws against Egypt and Iran suggested a team short on cutting edge going forward, before the 5-1 win over New Zealand and the extra-time escape against Senegal revealed a side capable of scoring in bursts once it found its rhythm. The USA game showed what Belgium look like when that rhythm arrives early, with De Ketelaere finishing two clean chances inside the first half and the game settled well before the interval.

Spain will not offer the same opportunities that Senegal’s tiring legs did in the 125th minute, or that the USA’s defensive breakdown provided in the first half of the last-16 tie. Cubarsi and Laporte have organised a back line that has faced only five shots on target in five matches, and De la Fuente’s side have shown no sign of the nerves that so nearly cost Belgium against Senegal. Whatever Belgium bring to Los Angeles on Friday, it will need to be built on more than the moments of chaos that have carried them this far.

For Trossard, Friday offers the clearest platform yet to confirm what this tournament has already suggested: that Belgium’s most reliable creative outlet in the biggest games of the summer is not the player most people expected it to be in June. He arrived at the tournament as a squad option behind De Bruyne and Doku in most people’s expectations. Five games in, he leaves that hierarchy looking out of date.