Kevin De Bruyne: This is not Belgium from 2018 – but our youngsters can be great | OneFootball

Kevin De Bruyne admits the current Belgium team does not possess the same depth compared with the group from 2018 but is hoping his nation’s young stars can step up and lead them to Euros glory.

Belgium reached the semi-finals of the 2018 World Cup before losing narrowly to eventual winners France but beat England in the third-placed play-off to record their best ever World Cup finish.

The current Red Devils, meanwhile, recovered from their opening Euro 2024 defeat to Slovakia by beating Romania 2-0 but still find themselves level on points with each of their Group E opponents heading into their final group clash with Ukraine.

De Bruyne played a vital part in the victory over Romania, scoring his side’s second goal, and believes his country’s current crop of young talent have what it takes to lead Belgium to success if they continue on their current path.

“No, I think the most depth we had was 2018. That’s clear. That team was stacked from one to 25,” he said when asked whether the current Belgian side is the strongest he has been a part of.

“But there are young guys who are able to go to that level. I think there’s a lot of guys who are only playing for the first or second time.

“I think we’re trying to get these guys to reach that level. They are like 21, 22, 23, what I was a decade ago. We know the potential to be great is there but obviously it depends on them.

“We’re trying to help them and I hope they can do that because once we are done playing for Belgium, they have to take it over and I hope they do a good job.”

One of those young stars is De Bruyne’s Manchester City team-mate Jeremy Doku, 22, who has impressed the Belgium skipper with his improvement since joining Pep Guardiola’s side last summer.

He said: “(He’s developed) a lot. I think he’s done really well. Obviously he had the setback with the injury and missed some time but I think he ended the season really well.

“His dribbling skills are frightening. I think he had a really good first season at City and there’s many more to come.”

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