After Belgium’s 0-1 loss to France in the Round of 16 at the European Championship, Kevin De Bruyne expressed his clear displeasure with the media’s questions about the failure of the Belgian “Golden Generation”.
At the post-match press conference, when asked by reporters “What are your feelings about the so-called ‘Golden Generation’ of Belgian football not achieving success?”, De Bruyne looked annoyed and retorted: “What is your definition of a ‘Golden Generation’? Why are we the only ones labeled as such? England, France, Spain, Germany – aren’t they Golden Generations?”
He then stormed off, muttering under his breath as he left: “Stupid question”.
In the Round of 16 match, Belgium and France were evenly matched, pushing their opponents to the brink but failing to seize their opportunities. They ultimately lost due to an unfortunate own goal by Jan Vertonghen. Belgium’s “Golden Generation” has yet to achieve the goal of reaching the final of a major tournament, their best result being third place at the 2018 World Cup.
Looking back, Belgium were eliminated in the quarter-finals of the 2016 and 2020 European Championships, and this year they crashed out in the Round of 16.
Regarding his future with the national team, De Bruyne said: “For now, I need time to recover both physically and mentally. I will make a final decision after the summer.”
“Tonight, I gave everything I had. You can see that I even played as a defensive midfielder for a long time just to help the team. It’s a shame we couldn’t take advantage of those opportunities. We didn’t want to lose, even though the expectations for Belgium were not as high as other big teams.”
“We had a strategy against France and we implemented it effectively. We predicted that France would have more possession, and although Belgium didn’t have many chances, the ones we did have were very valuable. Until that unfortunate goal, the game was under our control. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find a way to break them down.”
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