No real sacred union before the round of 16 which already promises to be heated against the French team, early Monday evening (6 p.m.). After their frankly disappointing draw conceded against Ukraine (0-0), during the last match of group E in this Euro 2024, the Belgians, who finished 2nd in the group behind Romania, were greeted by loud whistles. their audience at the final whistle of the match.
It’s a pretty crazy scene captured in the stands by the journalists present on site. The Belgian group, dressed in sky blue and brown in their away kit that pays homage to Tintin, advances from the center of the field towards one of the corners of the Stuttgart Arena, towards the contingent of Red Devils supporters present in the stands. Then comes a monumental booing, equivalent to the disappointment of these Belgian supporters who, beyond the result, undoubtedly expected better from their team in terms of play.
Oh, the surreal scene after Ukraine-Belgium: the Belgian players head towards their supporters under a huge bronca, De Bruyne breaks down and asks to return to the center of the field 😳 #ukrbel #EURo2024 pic.twitter.com/jsAj3No0C1
— JS Grond-Tran (@JS_Grond) June 26, 2024
The Belgians then simply…turned around. Following Kevin De Bruyne, visibly annoyed by the reaction of the supporters, the Devils returned to the locker room without asking for their rest. Named player of the match, the Manchester City midfielder preferred to focus on the essentials: “We are qualified and I am very happy with the way we played, we even deserved to win. The end of the match was complicated, because if we conceded a goal, we were eliminated. We tried, we played well, we created chances and in the last minutes, we just had to think about qualifying. »
Tedesco “surprised” by the whistles
For his part, coach Domenico Tedesco declared himself “surprised” by these whistles, “because it was really important for us to qualify”. “We really tried everything to win, we could have scored, so I can’t be disappointed,” he reacted at a press conference. It’s a big surprise… It’s not like I took Doku out to bring in a defender.” He assured that he did not have a “message” to send to his audience, only believing that he “need their support”.
Criticized while his men clearly sought to gain time rather than go for first place, the technician summed up the situation by assuming “clear management of the match”: “If we conceded a goal, we were eliminated, we wanted to avoid that,” he explained. Enough to calm the critics?
