Kev: I’ll pile the pain on England
from PAUL BROWN in Moscow
KEVIN DE BRUYNE has vowed to send England home as losers.
The Belgium star is desperate to make up for his nation’s semi-final loss to France by beating England in tomorrow’s third/fourth place play-off game in St Petersburg.
Belgium were the pre-tournament favourites for many but De Bruyne believes coming third would still be a huge achievement for their Golden Generation.
He said: “I’m proud of what we did as a team. We’ll try and win on Saturday, third place has never been done with Belgium.
“Who talks about generations? We are a very small country. We don’t have the resources, the infrastructure, the money that other countries have.
“We are disappointed we didn’t get to the final but in the end what we did here was very positive.
“We have played very well at this World Cup and we don’t want to go home losing on Saturday.”
De Bruyne reckons his Manchester City team-mate Raheem Sterling could be England’s danger man.
Sterling was brought off against Croatia and has been the target of fierce criticism back home for some of his performances.
But De Bruyne said: “I think he’s done really well in the games that I saw.
“He hasn’t scored a goal, but not everything in football is about goals.
“I don’t understand why you would criticise people from your own country when all they are trying to do is win it.”
De Bruyne has a word of warning for Croatia in the final – beware France superstar Kylian Mbappe.
He added: “He is a wonderful player. I think we coped with him very well in the semi-final. But no one will ever keep control of him for a whole game.”