Kevin de Bruyne voiced his frustration with Belgium’s 0-0 draw against Ukraine in a post-match expletive-laden rant.
Belgium barely advanced to the Euro 2024 round of 16 after a scoreless match with Ukraine on Wednesday night.
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As a result, Belgium dropped to second place in Group E, with Romania finishing first due to more goals scored.
This means Belgium will face France in the round of 16 and are in the same half of the tournament bracket as Spain, Germany, and Portugal.
A cameraman caught captain Kevin de Bruyne’s reaction to the disappointing draw.
Speaking to his teammates, the Manchester City player said: “Listen, it’s okay. We can win the f***ing next game. It’s fine.”
Immediately after the team huddle, De Bruyne and the Belgian squad were booed off the pitch by their own fans, who were unhappy with the team’s performance.
However, the 32-year-old took to Instagram to remind Belgian supporters of an important point.
Accompanying pictures from the match, he simply wrote: “Through!!”
In the post-match press conference, he also urged Belgian fans to support the team as they prepare for the challenging round of 16 match against France.
He said: “We just need them, I don’t know what else to say. We just need the fans. We’ll need them against France. We needed them in the last three games. That’s it.”
“We tried to win the match. We had goalscoring opportunities,” he explained. “We didn’t take any risks with the corner because we knew we might concede a goal.
“If that happens, you’re out of the Euros. It’s a shame we didn’t manage to score before – we had opportunities – and after that we just need fans to stay with us.”
Speaking more about the disappointing display against Ukraine, he added: “Up until the 90th minute we tried to find solutions out there. We even had two shots in the 90th minute, and Ukraine had one or two good opportunities, too.
“When there’s a minute left, you don’t take any risks. I can understand people want us to win, but if I put the corner over and they counter, everyone will kill me and say I didn’t make the right decision.
“So sometimes you take a risk and other times you need to be smart. Two minutes from the end, you need to be smart.”
