 Belgium reached six successive World Cups from 1982 through 2002 by playing qualification rounds, a record bettered only by Spain whose 2018 World Cup is their ninth consecutive qualification (a streak going back to 1986).Every other nation with an equal or longer string of appearances has had the streak "interrupted" by automatic qualification as the host or the defending champion (the 2006 tournament was the first for which the defending champion does not automatically qualify).On top of that, in that era the Belgian team reached the second phase five out of six times.