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sport">“This hurts,” responds the captain in front of the camera of sporza. “It is a big disappointment. Like the previous tournaments, I’m going to look back on this as a missed opportunity. Even now you can look and analyze where things went wrong.”
sport">The first goal against, in which the Belgian record international was unfortunate, hurts him in particular. “At that moment we had the ball once. We tried to keep them in the squad, but that was the wrong choice. Your own 16 meters is not the best space to do that. I should have shot that ball.”
sport">Vertonghen had. was immensely annoyed by Italy’s behavior during the match. “Italy has a good team. You can tell that from the statistics, but I don’t want to give them too many compliments either. They irritated me too much for that. Those are apologies, I know, because it is mainly those conceding goals that we have to look at. Our own fault,” admits a disappointed Vertonghen.
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Jan Vertonghen and Romelu Lukaku are disappointed.
Ⓒ HH/ANP
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‘We found a very good Italy’
sport">Belgium national coach Roberto Martinez was also saddened after the defeat. “After all that work, the players did not deserve this elimination,” said the Spanish coach. “But we found a very good Italian team. The little details made all the difference. I think the opponent has adapted well to our game in the first half.”
sport">Belgium went into halftime trailing 2-1, but the Red Devils failed to score another goal in the second half. “We showed a lot of concentration and good intentions after the break, but we couldn’t score that second goal,” said Martinez. “I am not disappointed because my players have not failed in their attitude. I am sad for them.”
sport">Martinez declined to answer questions about his future. “This is a difficult moment, all I think about is the defeat and the fact that we have to go home. Now is the time to analyze, but the sadness and disappointment now haunt my head.”
sport">The national coach had to miss one of his most important players against Italy with Eden Hazard. “Of course it is not an advantage to have to play without Eden. Kevin De Bruyne was ready to help the team. I think we handled the situation around the injured well this tournament.”
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