The pressure is off Belgium at the 2026 World Cup — and Maxim De Cuyper believes that could work in their favour.The Brighton & Hove Albion defender is part of a new wave of talent as his national team transitions under Rudi Garcia from their golden generation, a group who had been weighed down by the burden of big expectations in recent tournaments.Garcia still has an old-guard core of Kevin De Bruyne, Romelu Lukaku and Thibaut Courtois upon whom to call, a throwback to an era when Belgium were regarded as genuine contenders to be crowned world champions.They beat Brazil in the quarter-finals in Russia in 2018 — described by De Cuyper as “one of the most historic games in Belgium football history” — before losing to eventual winners France in the semi-finals. Roberto Martinez’s side ended up finishing third.They were strongly fancied to build on that in Qatar in 2022, only to crash out in the group stages, scoring one goal en route and finishing third in their group behind Morocco and Croatia.Kevin De Bruyne shows his despair as Belgium depart Qatar prematurely (Francois Nel/Getty Images)Garcia’s side are long-priced outsiders this time, at least according to bookmakers, with odds available as high as 50-1.“If you didn’t qualify for a World Cup in 2010 and in 2018 you are playing in the semi-finals, it’s normal that expectations change, and they change again when there is a new generation,” says De Cuyper. “We don’t have the same pressure as the team that was playing some years before us.“Sometimes it’s good, sometimes not. It’s good to push you even more. I can see the advantages and disadvantages of it.“But for a lot of guys that are playing with us, maybe it’s good that we don’t have too much pressure because it’s the first tournament and, hopefully, we can just grow into the tournament and see how far we can go.”