It remains to be seen whether Kevin De Bruyne and Eden Hazard will kick off against Italy on behalf of Belgium on Friday evening. The star players were absent during the final training on Thursday and are racing against the clock. It could be Belgium’s first time since 1980 that the country qualifies for the semi-finals. At the time, West Germany proved too strong in the final with 1-2.
Hazard’s injury appeared to be not too bad, as the attacker appeared on the training field on Wednesday and attended part of the session. On Thursday, however, he dropped the training, possibly as a precaution. De Bruyne was also absent from the final training. The Manchester City midfielder was substituted for Dries Mertens against Portugal just after half-time after a foul by João Palhinha.
Hazard was taken off the side by Roberto Martínez in the final phase of the game for Yannick Carrasco. The captain is struggling with hamstring problems. RTL reports that both Hazard and De Bruyne completed a session in the gym on Thursday, before traveling with the team to Munich for the quarterfinals. For De Bruyne, the European Championship is already messy anyway. The eye-catcher was missing against Russia and played half against Denmark and Portugal. Only in the last group match against Finland did he complete the ninety minutes.
Belgian federation is already clear about Martínez .’s future
Roberto Martínez will remain as head coach of the Belgian national team after the European championship.
“Both De Bruyne and Hazard are positive, they remain with the group and have no structural damage,” Martínez said during the press conference on Monday evening. “But we are racing against the clock. The next game will follow on Friday. It will be difficult to get them fully fit. But we will monitor them. But if we make it to the semi-finals, they can play anyway. The chance that they will play is fifty-fifty.”
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