Belgium manager Domenico Tedesco said captain Kevin De Bruyne’s “emotional and disappointed” public criticism of his side was “fine” after their 2-0 defeat in France in the Uefa Nations League.
De Bruyne, who scored twice in the Red Devils’ 3-1 win at home to Israel in their campaign opener on Friday, revealed he had addressed his team-mates at half-time in Lyon, adding that “other things are unacceptable” in the national side.
More worryingly for Belgium, the 33-year-old was caught sharing an exchange with technical director Frank Vercauteren on the pitch in which he was interpreted by some Belgian journalists to have said “I’ll stop”.
Kevin De Bruyne dépité hier après la défaite de la Belgique 🇧🇪.
Dans cette séquence, certains journalistes belges voient Kevin De Bruyne dire « Ik Stop » (“𝗝’𝗮𝗿𝗿𝗲̂𝘁𝗲”) faisant craindre une retraite internationale du Diable Rouge.
🎥 @RTLsportsbe pic.twitter.com/GOhqSVV1pG
— Actu Foot (@ActuFoot_) September 10, 2024
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Kevin De Bruyne interview ’emotional’
“Kevin has the mentality of a winner,” responded Tedesco, telling Belgian outlet VTM, via Nieuwsblad, that he had not heard De Bruyne’s interview.
“He’s emotional and disappointed and that’s fine. I’ll analyse that later. The feeling is that we lost control after 25 minutes.
“Yes, it’s normal to be disappointed. We needed to score in the first 25 minutes because we had three good chances – not small ones.
“But this is a problem we’ve had for a long time. If you want to achieve something here against France in France, you have to take your chances, especially when you have such a dominant start.”
Asked about suggestions that De Bruyne could quit international football, Tedesco replied: “No, no – look, we are very emotional after the game. It’s human. We have to calm down and we will analyse [matters] at a very good moment.”
30 goals for Belgium. 👑🇧🇪 pic.twitter.com/8gqv7T8gOl
— Belgian Red Devils (@BelRedDevils) September 7, 2024
De Bruyne: Belgium ‘have to be better’
The Manchester City midfielder was forthright in his views. “I can’t say here what went wrong,” he said. “I already did that to the team at half-time.
“I cannot repeat that in the media but it has to be better in every way. If the standard we want to reach is the best but we’re no longer good enough to get to that level, then you have to give everything. If you don’t even do that, it’s over.”
The four-time City player of the season could “accept” that Belgium’s current squad is inferior to the one that reached the semi-finals of the 2018 Fifa World Cup.
“I was the first to see that but other things are unacceptable,” he said. “I’m not going to say what.”
France vs Belgium
Belgium went 13 games unbeaten following the appointment of former Spartak Moscow and RB Leipzig boss Tedesco in March 2023.
Their first defeat of his reign was a surprise setback against Slovakia in their opener at Uefa Euro 2024, in which they beat Romania and drew with Ukraine before being knocked out with a 1-0 defeat to France.
Randal Kolo Muani scored in the 29th minute and Ousmane Dembele added the 57th-minute second in Belgium’s latest defeat, leaving them three points behind Group A2 leaders Italy.
Mbappé 🤝 KDB#NationsLeague pic.twitter.com/QnwJuzD6oq
— UEFA EURO 2024 (@EURO2024) September 9, 2024
“It’s difficult to judge other teams, so I have to judge my own team,” said Tedesco. “When we talk about France, you see what kind of players they have in defence, what kind of players they have in midfield.
“We have to understand that we’re going home with zero points after this game. That hurts.”
Belgium visit Italy on October 10 (7.45pm BST) and host France four days later (7.45pm). City are at home to Brentford in the Premier League on Saturday (3pm).
