Furious Kevin De Bruyne booed by Belgium fans and rushes to tunnel after Euro 2024 match
A furious Kevin De Bruyne told his Belgium team-mates to go straight down the tunnel as they were heavily jeered by their own supporters after drawing with Ukraine.
Belgium sneaked into the last 16 as a result of Wednesday's 0-0 stalemate but only finished second in a group which they were expected to win comfortably, with all four teams finishing on an unprecedented four points. De Bruyne and co went into the game knowing that a draw would be enough guarantee their place in the knockouts, having started with a humiliating 1-0 defeat to Slovakia before beating Romania 2-0.
But by finishing as runners-up after another unconvincing display, Belgium will now face France in the round-of-16 on what's considered to be the much tougher side of the draw. De Bruyne, 32, was walking over to applaud Belgium's supporters at Stuttgart's MHPArena alongside his team-mates when they were met with boos and fierce criticism.
The fed-up Manchester City star swiftly signalled for his fellow Red Devils to turn around and head towards the tunnel. De Bruyne's name was even booed after being named player of the match.
The Belgian midfielder then vented his frustration during a TV interview, admitting: "We would have preferred to win this game, but so be it. Let me ask you this, what if we went all out to attack and we conceded a goal to go out, what will you [media] tell us then?"
De Bruyne later added in a press conference: "I can understand the reactions. We didn't win and we're not first in our group, but I can't say that my team-mates didn't give it all to win this match. We did the job, we qualified after losing our first game. We're now on the wrong side of the draw but we'll try and prepare for France as best as possible and then we'll see.
"The players were rather calm in the dressing room, there wasn’t a lot of noise. I've been playing football for a long time, I've had many good moments, I won a lot, I've had a lot of difficult and painful moments in my career, it's not very nice to go through that.
"This happens in football, but whatever happens you need to know how to manage the less fine moments. We know we could have done better but we qualified."
Belgium also had a team huddle after the game, with manager Domenico Tedesco asking the cameras to back away as they got a close-up view. Tedesco, who succeeded Roberto Martinez following Belgium's underwhelming World Cup campaign in Qatar, also revealed post-match that his side's preparations had been disrupted by arriving late to the stadium.
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STUTTGART, GERMANY - JUNE 26: A general view of fans of Belgium as they celebrate after the UEFA EURO 2024 group stage match between Ukraine and Belgium at Stuttgart Arena on June 26, 2024 in Stuttgart, Germany. (Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images)
"We had some problems before the match; we arrived late, especially with the pre-match problems getting here, it took us one hour and 10 minutes and that caused stress, we had to reduce the warm-up and I couldn't make my pre-match speech," the Italian-German coach explained.
"But the guys showed the mentality to be able to make the switch. We should have scored but our possession was sterile. Perhaps our youth cost us dearly at certain moments in this match."
On the reception his players received, Tedesco acknowledged: "Obviously, the supporters are not delighted to play the French. Otherwise they wouldn't have whistled the team. I don't know the reason for the whistles. For our part, I can tell you that we are here to play big matches."
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