Alderweireld and De Bruyne clash on the field


Thursday, November 24, 2022 at 07:47• Mart Oude Nijeweeme • Last update: 07:54

Belgium’s frustrating World Cup overture against Canada (1-0) was illustrated on Wednesday evening by a squabbling Kevin De Bruyne and Toby Alderweireld. The two got into an altercation after Michy Batshuayi had put the Belgians ahead. De Bruyne admitted afterwards that he wanted to receive the ball more often in the foot. Alderweireld had just before delivered the assist to Batshuayi with a nice deep pass.

Belgium had a very difficult time against the stiff Canadians and could thank Thibaut Courtois that it was not already behind after ten minutes. The Real Madrid goalkeeper parried a penalty from Alphonso Davies and Batshuayi became the match winner. De Bruyne does not know whether the weak performance was due to the pressure. “I can’t speak for others, but I didn’t feel it myself. Of course he came into the team a bit when we were having such a hard time.”

The fact that after Batshuayi’s opening goal there was an open clash between De Bruyne and Alderweireld is a matter for discussion among the southern neighbors. According to the Manchester City midfielder, there was enough space to play football. “That was about football matters”, De Bruyne grinned. “As I said earlier: there was more space than was perhaps said. That was the discussion. We were looking for the long ball too much, while there was indeed room. Well, such a discussion is not a problem.”

According to Alderweireld, it was a normal football discussion. “That’s football, pure emotions. We’re not already choirboys here. We’re here as men. Kevin had something and I disagreed. Period. That’s a little bit of emotions. In the end I was up to speed with my assist. I’m not commenting on the details. It’s all very fast. But the knobs turned very quickly and it’s been done between Kevin and me. We’re more than okay together.”