Kevin De Bruyne called his Belgium teammates “unacceptable” for how they played after France beat them in the Nations League tie.
Randal Kolo Muani and Ousmane Dembele scored goals in Lyon on Monday night, giving Belgium a 2-0 loss. This made the playmaker for Manchester City very angry. French team France had a much better game after a bad 3-1 loss to Italy, even though leader Kylian Mbappe was not playing.
Even though Belgium had more of the ball, they couldn’t make it count. Kolo Muani scored the first goal by slamming in a loose ball, and Dembele scored the second after the break. The goals made De Bruyne, the leader of Belgium, very angry, and he didn’t hold back when he had to talk to the media after the game.
“I’m not allowed to say what went wrong here.” He told the Belgian TV station VTM, “I already did that to the team at halftime.” “I can’t say that again in public, but it needs to be better in every way.” You have to give your all if the standard you want to reach is the best and you’re not good enough to reach it now. It’s over if you don’t even do that.
When asked what went wrong, he said, “There are too many of us in the back.” There is no link if you stay with six in the back. Things are the way they are. “It’s not about transition; it’s about people who don’t do their jobs.”
The so-called “Golden Generation” helped Belgium make it to the semi-finals of the 2018 World Cup in Russia. But the team’s play has gotten worse recently, as their 1-0 loss to France in the last 16 of Euro 2024 showed. De Bruyne also said, “I can accept that we’re not as good as we were in 2018.” “That was the first thing I saw, but other things are wrong.” “I’m not going to say what.”
Belgium boss Domenico Tedesco wouldn’t say anything bad about De Bruyne’s outburst. Instead, he said, “He is our captain and has a huge winning mentality, so he can also react emotionally.”
The Red Devils had a good start to their Nations League season. On Friday, they beat Israel 3-1, with two goals from De Bruyne and one from Youri Tielemans, a defender for Aston Villa. The team is ranked sixth in the world by FIFA, but second-placed France is a bit of a bad guy because they beat them in July at Euro 2024.
Before the game, Tedesco said, “It would be a lie if I said that match is forgotten.” “It hurts still.” This tournament makes me think a lot, but you have to look ahead too. Sometimes the best thing to do is not to look back.
