Belgium captain Kevin de Bruyne criticized his teammates for failing to “give everything” in the 2-0 Uefa Nations League defeat to France.
With captain Kylian Mbappe among the substitutes, it was two of his former Paris Saint-Germain teammates who scored the goals that guided France to victory at Parc Olympique Lyonnais.
Striker Randal Kolo Muani opened the scoring for the hosts in the 29th minute when he applied the finish after Belgian goalkeeper Koen Casteels pushed out Ousmane Dembele’s mishit shot. Dembele then doubled France’s lead with a fine individual effort 12 minutes into the second half. The PSG winger skipped inside from the right wing before blasting a shot into the net with his left foot.
The victory was the ideal response to France’s disappointing 3-1 home loss to Italy in their first game. France now has an identical record to Belgium, which beat Israel 3-1 in its opener.
Not for the first time, De Bruyne was visibly frustrated during the Group A2 match and later told Belgian VTM television too many things had gone wrong in the game.
“I can’t say here what went wrong. I already did that to the team at halftime,” the Manchester City midfielder said. “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.
“I can accept that we’re not as good as in 2018,” the 33-year-old De Bruyne added of the side that reached the World Cup semi-finals in Russia. “I was the first to see that, but other things are unacceptable. I’m not going to say what.”
But pressed in the interview, he did point out one problem. “We are too many at the back. If you stay with six at the back, there is no connection. It is what it is. It is not about transition, but about people who do not perform their tasks.”
Belgium manager Domenico Tedesco said he understood De Bruyne’s anger: “He is our captain and has a huge winning mentality, so he can also react emotionally.”
Belgium made a lively start to the game but were quickly overwhelmed by a superior France side, who bounced back from last week’s loss to Italy in Paris to win comfortably.
