World Cup: Jan Vertonghen appears to take aim at Belgium teammate after Morocco loss | OneFootball

World Cup: Jan Vertonghen appears to take aim at Belgium teammate after Morocco loss | OneFootball

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·27 November 2022

World Cup: Jan Vertonghen appears to take aim at Belgium teammate after Morocco loss

Article image:World Cup: Jan Vertonghen appears to take aim at Belgium teammate after Morocco loss

Jan Vertonghen appeared to hit back at Kevin De Bruyne after Belgium’s shock World Cup defeat to Morocco on Sunday afternoon.

Ahead of the match, De Bruyne claimed Belgium have ‘no chance’ of winning the World Cup because their squad is too old.


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“I think our chance was 2018. We have a good team, but it is ageing. We lost some key players. We have some good new players coming, but they are not at the level other players were in 2018. I see us more as outsiders.”

Belgium were looking to make it two wins from two and were expected to beat Morocco.

But the north African side prevailed 2-0 thanks to late goals from Abdelhamid Sabir and Zakaria Aboukhlal.

Vertonghen spoke to the media after the game and he was heavily critical of his side.

“In the end we conceded two identical goals on the set piece, twice at the near post. Balls that should never go in,” he said, per the Daily Mail.

“The first time we got away well (disallowed for offside), the second time not anymore.”

Article image:World Cup: Jan Vertonghen appears to take aim at Belgium teammate after Morocco loss

Vertonghen then called out the attack for not creating any chances and appeared to indirectly respond to De Bruyne’s comments.

He added: “There’s so much going through my mind right now, things I shouldn’t say in the open air. I don’t think we created any chances. Where did it go wrong?

“We probably also attack badly because we are too old, that must be it now, surely? We have a lot of quality up front, but so does Morocco, and they came out better today. This is very frustrating.”

It appears that all is not well in Belgium’s camp.

They are now in danger of being dumped out of the competition at the group stage.

Roberto Martinez’s side will now have to defeat Croatia in their final group game to progress to the last 16.

Croatia are going into the game high in confidence after demolishing Canada 4-1 on Sunday evening.

Belgium will have to improve drastically if they are to progress and keep their chances of winning their first ever World Cup trophy alive.

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