Their Euro 2004 qualifying campaign was very unsuccessful as Belarus lost seven of their eight games. Around the same time, a generational change occurred and a number of players from the U-21 team (which qualified for the 2004 European U-21 Championship) joined the senior national team. With each subsequent head coach (Anatoly Baidachny, Yuri Puntus and Bernd Stange) the team improved their attacking skills. As a result, in each subsequent qualifying tournament starting with the 2006 World Cup, Belarus scored more goals (total and average per game) than in previous campaigns. However, problems in defense and missed scoring opportunities prevented them from finishing higher than fourth in the group. Some notable results during this period, included a high-scoring 3–4 away loss to eventual World Cup winner Italy in the 2006 World Cup qualifiers (the first time Italy conceded 3 goals in a home qualifying game since 1983), another home victory against the Netherlands during the Euro 2008 qualifiers as well as an away win and a home draw against France in the Euro 2012 qualifiers.