There was a huge brawl at the Belgium camp following their humiliating 2-0 defeat against Morocco on Sunday, November 27. However, Eden Hazard and Thibaut Courtois have denied the speculation.
Reports speculated that Kevin De Bruyne, Jan Vertonghen, and Belgium captain Eden Hazard got into a heated confrontation in the dressing room after they suffered a shameful defeat against Morocco.
Belgium was in FIFA’s top 5 rankings before the Qatar World Cup tournament began.
Their fans were expecting smooth sailing in the group stage fixtures but the performance of the “too old Belgium” revealed they have no prominence in this tournament.
Belgium struggled to beat Canada last week, thanks to Michy Batshuayi’s stunning goal but their underwhelming performance against Canada left fans in shock and baffles football pundits too.
Meanwhile, a similar awful performance emerged against Morocco on Sunday but the North African outfit managed to scold them with second-half goals from Romain Saiss and Zakaria Aboukhlal.
After the game, various reports indicated that a fight broke out in Belgium’s dressing room.
According to RTL report, the brawl was between De Bruyne, Hazard, and Jan Vertonghen with Romelu Lukaku interfering to calm the altercation.
The former Chelsea star, Lukaku had to intervene to break up the riot sprouting from resentment of the defeat to Morocco.
Reports further indicated that the situation has badly affected the Belgian dressing room following their horrible display during the world cup campaign.
However, Eden Hazard and Thibaut Courtois denied there was any altercation in the dressing room after Morocco’s defeat.
The Real Madrid forward, Hazard, said he had spoken with Kevin De Bruyne after the Manchester City star was quoted as saying the Belgium squad was “too old to win the World Cup.”
Eden Hazard, however, denied being involved in a brawl with team-mates Kevin De Bruyne and Jan Vertonghen in the Belgium dressing room.
Hazard said: “Nothing happened in the dressing room. Only the coach (Roberto Martinez) spoke. I spoke to Kevin De Bruyne, and he does believe in the group.”
In the same vein, Belgium goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois refuted rumors of a dispute in his team’s camp following their 2-0 defeat against Morocco.
Courtois said: “There are no problems in the team, it’s just an external attempt to create internal problems.
“Of course, after a defeat, nobody is happy, but it brings us even closer because we know that we will have to give everything on the lawn on Thursday.”
Amid that, there are reports that De Bruyne is not on speaking terms with Thibaut Courtois after the midfielder said Belgium can’t win the World Cup due to the many old players in Belgium’s team.
In reactions to all the speculations surrounding the team, the renowned Real Madrid goalkeeper described the speculations as lies cooked up by the press to attract people’s attention and get many clicks.
He added: “I was the first furious after the match, you saw the images (smile). But the problem is that there are too many lies around the group, in the press, on social networks, and in everything, the world takes for granted.”
“As a group, we can’t let this negativism affect us. Even if certain things have to be said.”
Thibaut Courtois further said if the identity of the one “leaking” the fake information is revealed, the culprit will have his “last day” in the Belgium team.
Roberto Martinez’s Belgium team is sitting at the third spot on the group F table with 3 points and has to win against Croatia if they want to remain in the tournament.
To qualify for the round of 16, Belgium must show their bravery and strive hard to win when they meet group F toppers Croatia in their final group fixture.
Belgium vs Croatia’s crucial match will be played at Ahmed bin Ali Stadium on Thursday, 1st of December at 4 pm.
