When the World Cup began 30 days ago, few believed Belgium – shorn of so many star names who featured in their previous campaigns on this stage – were among the potential winners.
Even fewer would have believed it when they were 2-0 down with 85 minutes played against Senegal in the last 32.
But now the Red Devils are in the quarter-finals, having delivered one of the all-time great World Cup comebacks to vanquish the Senegalese, before following it up with one of the most impressive performances of the tournament so far in beating the USA 4-1 on their home turf.
Eden Hazard, Mousa Dembele, Marouane Fellaini, and Vincent Kompany may be long gone, but a squad which still features Thibaut Courtois, Romelu Lukaku, Kevin de Bruyne and Axel Witsel has turned a mediocre start into a potential shot at glory.
As they prepare to take on Spain for a place in the semi-finals on Friday (20:00 BST), were the Belgian golden generation written off too soon, or is manager Rudi Garcia harnessing their power in a different way?
How crucial have golden generation survivors been for Belgium?
Belgium reached the quarter-finals in Brazil in 2014 and then the semi-finals in Russia in 2018 – when their team was arguably at its peak – but were wretched in 2022, eliminated in the group stage behind Morocco and Croatia.
“I think this is a new era for us,” said Real Madrid goalkeeper Courtois, playing in his fourth World Cup, before the USA victory.
“It is true that there are some players from the golden era, but the World Cup in Qatar for us was not that good.
“Now we have another generation with younger people, new people, willing to do great things and writing in the history pages for Belgium.”
And Courtois is right – the younger players are harbouring much of the burden.