International teammate bites back at Real Madrid star

Belgium suffered an unexpected 2-0 defeat at the hands of Morocco to leave their World Cup hopes hanging by a thread. Both of Real Madrid’s players, Eden Hazard and Thibaut Courtois, had games to forget. Even their 1-0 win against Canada had raised a lot of doubts about the Red Devils. Now, their final group stage game is a tough encounter against Croatia.

Leading up to the match against Morocco, the Belgian players had made some strange comments. While Kevin De Bruyne had called the squad ‘too old’, national team captain Hazard had questioned the speed of the defenders.

While Belgium did end up conceding two goals against Morocco, they did not score any of their own either, and for the second straight game, were outplayed by opposition one would normally expect them to breeze past.

Jan Vertonghen, who is 35 years of age, does not seem to have been a big fan of some of the comments that his teammates had made before the match. As reported by GOAL, he said:

"“I guess we attack badly because we are also too old up front. We didn’t create enough chances. We conceded the same goal twice at the near post.”"

Vertonghen bites back at Real Madrid star’s pre-match comments

The fact of the matter is that Belgium look like a side who are past their prime. This was their Golden Generation and for almost a decade, they had the chance to deliver at a major tournament, but they just never managed to do it.

Now, players like Hazard and Romelu Lukaku do not seem nearly as good as they once were. On the other hand, while De Bruyne and Courtois might still be performing at the club level, they have seemed off colour at the World Cup themselves.

Even then, the comments ahead of the match seemed strange and would not have done the confidence of the players any good. They still have the chance to qualify for the last 16, but they will have to be much better against Croatia.