De Bruyne after Belgium’s elimination: we were not among the favourites at the Euro. The victorious French were very lucky to score own goals

Belgium’s elimination from the 17th European Championship was decided by an own goal, which was very lucky for the historically victorious France. After the game, a saddened Kevin De Bruyne admitted that his team were not among the favourites.

Probably the strongest eighth-final on paper. That’s how France and Belgium (1: 0) could be described, but it didn’t offer any great offensive whirlwind. Belgium played from a secure defence and waited for counter-attacks against the conquering French.

The game, which went into extra time, was eventually decided by substitute Kolo Muani. In the 85th minute, the PSG striker sent a hard shot at Casteels from a turn, which was still headed in by the defending Vertonghen. France are heading to the quarter-finals, the Belgians are out of the tournament.

“It’s a shame. We had a plan and we executed it quite well. We knew that the French would have the ball more on their feet because of their quality. We still had our moments, unfortunately not many,” Kevin De Bruyne told uefa.com after the game.

France are comfortable with their own goals, De Bruyne doesn’t hide his disappointment

“I tried to do everything I could. Today I played in a more defensive position, but I tried to help the team with all my strength. We wanted more from this tournament. We were not the favourites, but we wanted to reach the quarter-finals at least,” added the Manchester City midfielder.

The 33-year-old was an important player in what was only the fifth match in the history of the European Championships in which an own goal decided the 1-0 scoreline. And it is not without interest that three of these matches were played by the French.

“Tonight is a difficult match for me to evaluate. We saw that France had problems with their defence. They played very high and we tried to take advantage of that. We wanted to play with three strikers to take advantage of France’s weaknesses. It didn’t happen, ” Belgian coach Tedesco sad after the game.

The Belgians will not add to their collection of silver and bronze medals from the European Championships this year. France, on the other hand, will challenge Portugal for the semi-finals in Hamburg on Friday.

Source: ČT Sport, UEFA.com