The Belousov-Zhabotinskyi reaction is governed by very complex chemical kinetics involving at least 20 species. Nevertheless, there are many results that suggest that such a reaction could be described by a 3D model. For instance, in the special case when the asymptotic behavior is close to a homoclinic orbit, a 3D normal-form model has been previously proposed. Rather than deriving such a model, which requiring prior knowledge about the dynamics, a 3D model is here obtained by using a global vector field reconstruction technique starting from the measured time dependence of [CeIV]. This reconstructed model is hereafter validated by comparing the topological properties of the associated attractor to the ones directly reconstructed from the time series by using derivative coordinates. Indeed, the template characterizing the reconstructed model is compatible with the one extracted from the data. Nevertheless, it is found to be not compatible with the template associated with the normal-form model, which does not generate trajectories close enough to the experimental ones. Consequently, the topological properties of the underlying dynamics are not well captured by the normal-form model.