De Bruyne said: “We had a plan, we executed it well. With the quality of France, we knew we wouldn’t have possession.“
By Kehinde Okeowo
Belgium captain, Kevin De Bruyne has defended his team’s tactical approach in their Euro 2024 round of 16 loss on Monday, insisting they had a good plan to beat France.
The Red Devils crashed out of the European competition after Jan Vertonghen’s late own goal gave the Les Blues a 1-0 victory.
Domenico Tedesco’s men defended resiliently against France until the 85th minute, when Randal Kolo Muani’s shot took a deflection from Vertonghen and went in.
The manager switched to a 4-4-2 formation for the game and his captain has now leaped to his defence.
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Speaking to reporters after the game, De Bruyne said: “We had a plan, we executed it well. With the quality of France, we knew we wouldn’t have possession. We had moments to be dangerous. It’s a shame to concede the goal like that, but that’s football.
“A mistake in our game plan? When you give France a lot of space, it’s very difficult to defend Griezmann, Mbappe or Thuram one-on-one. That’s why we decided to drop back a bit. We didn’t concede many chances. It was a good plan until five minutes from the end.”
Meanwhile, Portugal booked their place in the quarter-final of Euro 2024 after beating Slovenia in a dramatic penalty shootout.
Ronaldo was reduced to tears when the Atletico Madrid goalkeeper Jan Oblak saved his penalty in extra time, with the score 0-0. Benjamin Sesko then missed a glorious chance moments later with the game going to penalties.
Ronaldo recovered to score Portugal’s first and Diogo Costa saved all three of the spot-kicks he faced, with Manchester City’s Bernardo Silva scoring the winning penalty to send his nation through.
They will face France in the next round, a repeat of the 2016 final.
