De Bruyne and Alderweireld looked back on Belgium’s World Cup fiasco with realism. The last dance of the Golden Generation already ended in the group stage.
“The World Cup just wasn’t good enough for us. We just have to accept that and hope that we can do better next time,” De Bruyne told Play Sports. “To be honest, we only played well in the second half against Croatia. Those other games weren’t that good,” the 31-year-old playmaker is honest.
For De Bruyne, these disappointing performances did not come completely out of the blue, he believes that the Red Devils have not reached their desired level for some time. “I don’t think we’ve been really great in the last two years. If you look at the games in that period, we actually didn’t win that much and we haven’t played really good football for a while,” he says.
Since the defeat to Italy in the quarterfinals of the European Championship in 2021, Belgium has won only nine of its nineteen caps. “We tried and looked to do better, but I think it just wasn’t possible this tournament,” concludes De Bruyne.
The quarell
In related news Toby Alderweireld recalls a quarrel with Kevin De Bruyne that took place during the World Cup. The defender does not blame the playmaker of Belgium.
Shortly after the winning goal against Canada (1-0) in the first group match, De Bruyne got into a discussion with national coach Roberto Martínez. When Alderweireld intervened in that conversation, De Bruyne responded with a dismissive gesture. Then he yelled, “Shut up.”
“I understand that Kevin said that, because I had also just shouted something,” Alderweireld acknowledged at the press conference in which he announced that he would not stop as an international. “It happened in the heat of the moment. We had just been under pressure for 35 minutes, which released a stress hormone in everyone. Then it may turn out like this,” he added.
Alderweireld also saw positive sides to the quarrel, “That exchange showed that we are working on it. If we didn’t care, we would have let it all pass. In the dressing room, hand on my heart, everything was quickly discussed.”
