After losing 1-0 to Italy on Thursday, Belgium face an uphill battle to qualify from Group B at Euro 2025 as they face world champions Spain next and could go out if they lose and Italy beat Portugal. But in prolific 32-year-old striker Tessa Wullaert, they have a player who is used to breaking boundaries and doing things the hard way.
The Red Flames, currently ranked 20th in the world, are playing in only their third European Championship. But this is their third in a row after 2017 and 2022 -- they even reached the quarterfinals last time -- and that is largely down to having the country's all-time record goal scorer leading the line as their captain.
In February, Wullaert spearheaded her side to an unfathomable 2-0 lead against Spain inside 72 minutes in the Nations League; a result that, if it had held. would have sent shockwaves across the continent. Instead, Spain levelled the game in the 92nd minute before breaking Belgian hearts with a dramatic winner in the 96th.
That defeat took its toll on the team in the immediate aftermath. Defeats against Portugal and England followed, before a return to form in April saw an historic 3-2 win against the Lionesses in Leuven. Wullaert stole the show, as she scored twice and assisted Justine Vanhaevermaet in the first 30 minutes.
After a 5-1 defeat to Spain, another two goals from Wullaert followed in a 3-0 away win in Portugal that helped Belgium leapfrog their opponents to finish third in their Nations League group. And, in the build-up to the Euros, she grabbed another in a 2-0 friendly win against Greece to net her 93rd international goal.
"If you had asked me 93 goals ago whether or not I thought I could have scored 100 goals for my country, I wouldn't have believed you," Wullaert tells ESPN from Belgium's training camp in Saillon. "I had no specific target when I started playing [for my country], but now that I'm at 93 and getting closer to 100, of course I'm now thinking about it.
"I have never really set myself any targets; I've always just tried to go from game to game, but always pushing myself to the maximum. But to be the first male or female Belgian player to reach 100 goals would be pretty cool."
Wullaert has already made history. In 2016, she overtook Aline Zeler as Belgium women's highest scorer. By October 2024, she reached 85 goals, matching Romelu Lukaku's record for the men's team. And her 86th came a month later against Ukraine, earning her a pair of gold-plated boots from the Belgian FA to celebrate her accolade.
When Wullaert scored her first international goal back in August 2011 against Russia, she was playing for her first club, SV Zulte Waregem, and combined her training with an internship as she studied for a bachelor's diploma in tourism. While she was also good at tennis, she decided that a team sport better suited her personality. "I'm super critical of myself, so an individual sport was not the right thing for me," she admits.
Her decision to pursue football came at a cost, though. She had to travel for up to four hours, five times a week to get to training, often on her own, while balancing her studies at the same time. After training, she led guided tours around Leuven in order to complete her course.
However, as a result of the low level of women's football in Belgium, she was forced to move abroad to chase her dreams. She joined German giants VfL Wolfsburg in 2015 and was a hit. She won two Bundesliga and three DfB-Pokal titles, and appeared in two UEFA Champions League finals in her three seasons, but struggled to adapt off the pitch and told Belgian brand La Michaux: "I was often lonely, surviving: the only people I saw during 'work' and free time were my teammates and the staff."
A move to Manchester City followed in 2018 and, though it was another two-year sojourn away from her boyfriend and family, she won an FA Cup and League Cup double in her first season. Wullaert scored six goals in 31 games in the Women's Super League, but it was her next spells back home at Anderlecht and then at Dutch side Fortuna Sittard that really got her firing. Between 2020 and 2024, she scored 108 league goals in just 84 games.
A move to Inter in 2024 saw her score 10 goals in 23 games and help the team qualify for the Champions League for the first time in their history as a result of finishing second in Serie A (their highest-ever finish.) However, Wullaert admits she would love to experience that winning feeling while on international duty too.
"We [Belgium] know we have the qualities, but we have to bring those together as a group and believe in the gameplan. All we can do is live game-to-game and see where it gets us," she says. "This is only the third time we've reached the Euros in our history, so we have to take some pride in qualifying in the first place.
"What we've done by getting here, and qualifying for the Euros three times in a row, is create a foundation whereby it's now the minimum expectation for Belgium to qualify for these competitions, because it's not an easy thing to do."
It's clear that Belgium are on the rise in women's football and conditions have improved since the Royal Belgian Football Association (RBFA) revealed its "World at Our Feet" strategic plan in 2019. Participation numbers are growing, while an additional budget of €3 million was contributed by both the RBFA and sponsors between 2020-2022.
"It's difficult to know what it will be like back home," Wullaert says. "During the last Euros, some of our hometowns were decorated with big screens so that people could watch the games. I don't know what will happen this summer, but I hope that everyone gets behind us and shows us some support.
"A lot of things have changed since then, so it's difficult to say how far we might go this time. Our ambition, as ever, is to win every game. If you have that mindset at all times then you never know what might happen. We know that every game will be difficult, and we know what to expect from Spain and Portugal, having played both of them in the Nations League."
Take a look at the numbers behind Italy's 1-0 victory over Belgium in their first game of Euro 2025.
The defeat against Italy leaves Denmark with it all to do against Spain and Portugal, but Wullaert believes Belgium remain capable of beating anyone on their day.
"Anything can happen in these matches," she says. "I think because we beat Portugal 3-0 the last time we played them, people think it will be easy. But the game before that, they beat us, so it will be about who turns up on the game day."
What's clear is that if Belgium are to turn around their hopes of progressing, Wullaert will need to help inspire her team from the front.
"Being captain is a big responsibility, of course," she adds. "The players look to you in all the big moments. I really enjoy it, both on and off the pitch. I am lucky that we have a team of captains, so while I mainly bring the leadership on the pitch, the other girls do it off the pitch and we work well as a group together. We are a close team and we get on well. We always encourage those who might be struggling to speak up. For every problem, there's a solution. We try to have as much fun as we can.
"When the games come around, it's also my job as an attacker is to score and create goals. I had a good game the last time we played Portugal, and I scored in that first match against Spain, but that doesn't mean it's going to go the same way this time. All we can do is our job, try and get the best out of the team and try to perform when it matters."
In truth, Belgium are something of a paradox. On the one hand, they thrive in being a small nation in which the players can easily swerve the limelight. On the other, they have a desire to grow and push the best nations.
"We're quite lucky that Belgium is a small country. Away from matches, we can go home and have time with our family or friends in a way that some other nations probably can't," she says. "That's something that both the coach and the players feel is really important. This is the second summer in a row that we've been busy, and so that can mean a long time away from the people you care about the most. Having time with friends and family is really important.
"At the same time, we want to go as far as possible while we're here, and we take that mindset into every match. The standard of the teams in these matches is so high that if we don't turn up focused and on our game, there is the potential to suffer a heavy defeat. We've already experienced that against Spain and England, but we also know that if we show up and use our qualities, we can hurt these teams.
"For us to succeed and progress we need all 11 players to be on it together. We did that when we beat England, when we beat Portugal, and when we pushed Spain all the way. We know we can do it, but we have to show up together as a group. As the captain, I see it as my responsibility to make that happen."