Kevin De Bruyne claims Belgium cannot be expected to compete with Italy and France despite topping the FIFA world rankings and boasting an enviable array of talent.
Another opportunity to land major silverware has passed the Red Devils by, with Roberto Martinez’s side only able to muster a fourth-place finish at the UEFA Nations League finals.
They remain the No 1 side on the planet in the official rankings, but De Bruyne claims Belgium lack the depth required to secure tangible success.
The Manchester City midfielder told HLN after suffering a 2-1 defeat to Italy in the Nations League play-off: “We did well at times against some top teams and had many new faces who did more than a decent job today.
“It’s good experience for them to be able to play against opponents of this calibre, but unfortunately we lost twice. With all due respect, playing against Estonia is not the same thing and these challenges are necessary for us to grow, both as individuals and as a team.
He added: “With all due respect, we are ‘just’ Belgium. It’s a new generation, we were missing Romelu Lukaku and Eden Hazard today, so we have to be realistic about the team we have. Italy, France and Spain have 22 top players to choose from and we do not.”
Belgium have entered every major tournament since 2014 among the favourites, given they can all upon the talents of De Bruyne, Lukaku, Hazard, Thibaut Courtois, Axel Witsel and Dries Mertens.
They have however progressed beyond the quarter-final stage just once at the last four competitions, with a third-place finish at the 2018 World Cup.
AFaixal
582
With all due respect, if world class team like Belgium failed to win any trophy, its not about the player.. Its about the coach.. With all due respect to Lampard, Chelsea won UCL after the hire T. Tuchel. Expectation and reality justify it.
QamarBilalSyed
435
This reminded me of Portugal when they lost Euro 2004 final to Greece. People said that Portugal would never get a chance to win any trophy. That was their golden generation. and yet we saw them lifting the same trophy after 12 years. For all the Belgium fans out there: Guys don't lose hope and glory will come.
Chelsea_Fox☆addict
352
Belgium has good attack, but bad defence. Just remember attack wins you games and defence wins you titles
Tencenttt
323
Golden Midfield
epjo
216
you can compete but UEFA planning the winner that is wasting of POWER TIME AND TALENT ask TIBAUSE COTOURE KNOWS WELL and check that offside goal will wake up your mind