Belgium manager, Domenico Tedesco, spoke to the press alongside star man Kevin De Bruyne ahead of his debut international tournament. The Red Devils, who are currently undefeated under their new coach, kick off their EURO 2024 campaign against Slovakia at Deutsche Bank Park, home of Eintracht Frankfurt.
Tedesco’s side will aim to start the tournament on a high note, having been drawn into one of the more favourable groups on paper. Slovakia will prove a tricky test, as they suffered just two losses in their qualifying fixtures in their path to Germany – both to Roberto Martinez’s relentless Portugal.
What did Kevin De Bruyne say?
Embed from Getty ImagesThe skipper Kevin De Bruyne reflected on Belgium’s 2022 Qatar World Cup woes, as they were unable to progress from the group stage for the first time since 1998. “We can change things, positively and negatively, it was a disappointment yes, but it was two years ago now, 18 months ago. This is a new tournament, a new coach, the team has changed quite a lot as well, and we are all here now to enjoy a good start to this competition. So we can focus on positives or negatives from the past, but the team is sharp, and ready to start this tournament.”
The Manchester City midfielder then discredited Belgium’s current FIFA World Ranking, as they sit in third behind Argentina and France: “I think for the moment, I wouldn’t say that our squad is third in the world right now, but in a tournament it doesn’t even matter. You have to start in a positive flow, and I feel the team is ready and they have a lot of energy to do something good, and that’s the only thing we can really look at. Rankings are rankings but it doesn’t really matter.
“It is difficult to give you an exact ranking for our team. People make their own rankings, people talk about who are the favourites for the tournament. Maybe we’re not the favourites for the tournament, but it’s difficult to tell you exactly how we should be ranked.”
The 32-year-old then looked ahead to their opponents: “We saw some clips from Slovakia, they play in the 4-3-3, I think the coach is somebody associated to [Maurizio] Sarri, so they play pretty similar, if they play the same way.
“They’re really aggressive in the 4-3-3, the high-pressing, the three midfielders being really advanced and trying to push up with the rest of the team, and they try to play good football. My take would be that they’d probably try to do the same tomorrow.
“If I see the clips, the important players are the triangle in the midfield, because they are the guys that put Slovakia together with the ball, without the ball, so I feel like they are probably the strong point.”
He then added, “We know what to expect from Slovakia, we have a lot of respect for them and we need to be at our best level tomorrow to play a good game, and we will try to do that.”
Embed from Getty ImagesHaving enjoyed two stints in Germany at Werder Bremen and Wolfsburg during his career, he reflected on his time in the country. “I had a good time, I was here for two-and-a-half years, this is the country where I took the next step after going from Belgium, with [Werder] Bremen – I think this was a really good season.
“Coming back to Germany with Wolfsburg was amazing, we won two of the titles that Wolfsburg ever won in their history. To be second after Bayern with Pep [Guardiola] was unbelievable. We did really well. We won the German Cup, we won the Super Cup and in the end I won Player of the Year, which when I came back to Wolfsburg, I never expected to be. It was an unbelievable season with an unbelievable team, and it was the league and club that changed my profile after a little bit of time at Chelsea. To go back to where I wanted to be, and they gave me the platform to go to [Manchester] City, and now I’m here 10 years later, so only good memories.”
Speaking on how Tedesco’s style of play is suited to him, De Bruyne explained the difficulties of being a manager of a national team. “At my age, with all the different coaches and styles of play that I’ve seen, I’ve always had to adapt to different people and different types of things. I am on the same wavelength as the coach. He want’s to play in an aggressive manner, he want’s things to be quick up top.
“When you’re a coach you have to adapt to the players you have. When you’re a club coach, you can buy players and change their style. But I think our coach has only come here because he’s seen the quality of this team. He seems happy in terms of how the group’s reacting of what he’s asking from us, so from what I’ve seen, I think we’ve made progress, and we will continue to do so.”
What did Domenico Tedesco say?
Embed from Getty ImagesComing into his first international major tournament, Tedesco revealed his thoughts ahead of the game: “I’m delighted that we’re finally going to get started at EURO2024, because, as you can imagine, the last few weeks and months have been full of hard work to make it here, to compete in this tournament. So we’re happy, and we’re also a little bit relaxed because I think the last few weeks have been very good, they’ve been very positive.”
When asked how Belgium will compare to the tournament’s best teams, the second youngest manager at the tournament admitted he was unsure. “We’ll see that in due course. We’ve made a whole host of changes in this team, in the squad. There are a number of players who retired after the Qatar 2022 World Cup so we’ve got a number of young players. We’ll see, we qualified very well. We played our friendlies against Germany, we came up against England at Wembley but a EURO tournament like this is a whole different kettle of fish. It’s a different atmosphere, so we’ll see, I’m very curious myself.”
Following an injury crisis in the Belgium camp, the Italian-born manager issued a fitness update. “The good news is that Arthur Theate and Jan Vertonghen trained with the team for the last, at least, three days. So it’s a pleasure to tell you that they will be available tomorrow so at least in the squad, and the rest, we are going to see.”
Belgium are unbeaten since November 2022 and will believe they can continue their impressive winning streak into this tournament.
You can follow Belgium’s clash against Slovakia, as well as every side’s journey at EURO2024, here on FromTheSpot.