MARTINEZ:WE’RE SOUND AS A BEL
Red Devils boss rubbishes talk of squad bust-ups: It’s all fake news
ROBERTO MARTINEZ has hit back at suggestions of broken team spirit ahead of Belgium’s crunch showdown with Croatia.
Kevin De Bruyne and Jan Vertonghen (both right) have aimed digs at the Red Devils’ squad over whether they are too old to go all the way in Qatar.
Yet boss Martinez insisted claims that his Belgium camp are not united are wide of the mark. “It shows that maybe there is more desire to find negative news around this team than get the nation together,” he said. “That was a lesson for all of us that we are here on our own. “We are here to fight for what we believe is the way we want to play and hopefully the fans – the real fans – of the Red Devils can enjoy the process.” Morocco lead Belgium by a point ahead of these final group games. Martinez’s side must win to give themselves a chance of progressing to the knockout stages as they also trail Morocco – who are second in the group behind Croatia – on goal difference. Martinez accused the Belgian and French media of trying to derail his side’s hopes of glory as they look to build on their third-placed finish in 2018.
“You have got some outlets who are quite happy to jump on fake news, which is quite astonishing.
“It has made the group more aware that the less they listen to the noise from the outside, the better.”
Timothy Castagne said Belgium are not a team in crisis, although he did admit there had been frank discussions in the wake of their 2-0 defeat to Morocco last time out.
“The first two games were not as good as we hoped, we didn’t show what we are capable of,” said the Leicester defender.
“It was very important to get things off our chests.”