DOHA, Qatar (AP) — The Belgium team held a meeting in which the players expressed their “honest” views on how the team can save its World Cup. campaign, goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois said Tuesday.
Belgium came to Qatar as the number 2 ranked team and one of the tournament favourites, but were unconvincing in a 1-0 win over Canada. before losing to Morocco 2-0 on Sunday.
The team needs to beat Croatia in their final group game on Thursday to guarantee advancement to the round of 16.
Courtois and Belgium captain Eden Hazard played down reports of team infighting that surfaced after the Morocco game.
Courtois said, however, that he and his teammates had a frank exchange of views at their training base in Al Rayyan on Monday.
“I didn’t feel there were any problems, but it’s always good to have a meeting together so everyone can share their thoughts,” the Real Madrid goalkeeper said on Tuesday. “That’s how everything works out and I think the best we can do is be honest, because on the pitch we have to fight for each other. So being honest is the most important thing.”
Much attention has been paid to an apparently off-the-cuff comment by Kevin De Bruyne, the team’s star, in a pre-tournament interview with Britain’s Guardian newspaper.
In it, De Bruyne was asked if Belgium can win the World Cup and was quoted as saying: “There’s no chance, we’re too old.” Against Canada, Belgium had six 30-year-old players in the starting lineup, and four of them amassed more than 100 international appearances.
One of them is Jan Vertonghen, who seemed to refer to De Bruyne’s comment when he spoke after the loss to Morocco.
“Where did it go wrong?” Vertonghen said. “We probably also attack badly because we’re too old, that must be now, right?”
Hazard said he had spoken to De Bruyne and that his former teammate “believes in us more than ever.”
“Sometimes in an interview you say funny things that you don’t really mean,” Hazard said. “I think he just wanted to say that we are older than four years ago. And he’s right, we’re older.
“Everyone is older. The defenders We, the midfielders. Thibaut is older than he was four years ago, it is what he is. I think Kevin is the first to have confidence in this group, otherwise he would not be here.
Hazard urged his team to play “without fear” against Croatia, runner-up in the 2018 World Cup.
“In two days, it may be our last game, so we have to play with the desire to win,” he said. “If we go out on the field together, 11 players, we can beat Croatia. I know it’s going to be difficult, because every game in this World Cup is difficult, but we can do it. With the team we have, we can do it.”
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Steve Douglas is at https://twitter.com/sdouglas80
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AP World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/world-cup and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
