As Belgium coach Domenico Tedesco examines the reasons behind his team’s early exit from Euro 2024, Kevin De Bruyne, the star of the team nicknamed the “Red Devils”, has left his future with the team unclear.
The Belgian national team bid farewell to the European Nations Championship (Euro 2024), currently being held in Germany, after losing 0/1 to the French national team, yesterday, Monday, in the round of 16 of the competition.
The only goal of the match came via friendly fire, after Jan Vertonghen, the Belgian national team defender, scored an own goal in the 85th minute, so France snatched the ticket to the quarter-finals of the tournament, which it won in 1984 and 2000, and set a date with the Portuguese national team in Hamburg, in a rematch of their match in the final of the 2016 edition of the tournament, which was won by the teammates of star Cristiano Ronaldo.
“After an hour of the final whistle and conceding a late own goal, it is difficult to analyse the match. We will study everything at the European Nations in a few weeks,” Tedesco said in a press conference after the match, which was held in the German city of Dusseldorf.
“It’s difficult to go into details tonight,” added Tedesco, whose contract with Belgium ends in 2026. “We saw France having defensive problems behind their lines. We wanted to play with three forwards to exploit the spaces in the opponent’s defence. That was our main plan.”
Belgium lost all five of its matches against France in major competitions (World Cup, European Nations), including a 1-0 defeat in the 2018 World Cup semi-final.
The Belgian national team, which finished third in the World Cup in Russia six years ago, continued to disappoint its fans, who are still disappointed by the team’s exit from the last World Cup in Qatar in 2022 from the group stage.
Belgium arrived in Germany unbeaten since Tedesco took charge in February 2023, but left the tournament after a completely lacklustre campaign.
The Belgian national team players failed to score in 3 matches out of 4 matches played by the team in the competition, while its only victory in the tournament came at the expense of its Romanian counterpart, after beating it 2/0 in the group stage.
“We put a lot of pressure on Slovakia, Romania and Ukraine in our group games, but the players had in their minds that if they conceded one goal they would be out of the tournament,” Tedesco said. “I think it’s a pity that (Romelu) Lukaku went home without a goal in the competition after a good performance.”
Lukaku could have put his name on the list of top scorers at Euro 2024, but his three goals scored during his career in the tournament were cancelled by the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) technology.
Euro 2024 looked like a final roll of the dice for Belgium’s golden generation, with the team’s stars, led by De Bruyne and Lukaku, now in their 30s.
Asked about his possible international retirement, De Bruyne said: “I have to digest it first.”
In this regard, Tedesco stressed: “He knows how important he is. He knows my opinion. It is difficult now after the match to ask Kevin De Bruyne these kinds of questions.”
“I did everything I could to help the team,” De Bruyne stressed, and to continue in the tournament until at least the quarter-finals.
“It wasn’t what we wanted, but even though we weren’t one of the favourites to win the title, I think we let ourselves down against Slovakia,” the Manchester City star revealed, referring to the team’s shock 1-0 defeat to the Slovaks in the first round of the group stage.
., and the latest political and economic developments via Google News