ROBERTO MARTINEZ says Belgium have become victims of French dirty tricks aimed at destabilising their World Cup bid.
Belgium laboured to victory over Canada and then suffered a shock 2-0 loss to Morocco that has left them needing to win their final group game against Croatia to progress.
And stories that emerged in the French media about a bust-up amongst the players have shaken the camp with Martinez believing they have been done because Belgium are a threat to holders France’s crown.
It was reported that after the defeat to Morocco a row occurred between Kevin De Bruyne and Jan Vertonghen and that the pair had to be split up by Romelu Lukaku.
Manager Martinez said: “A World Cup is the biggest sporting event in the world and there are many World Cups getting played and you could see maybe a country like France did a very good job with a story that became the main topic of conversation in Belgium.
“What is clear is whoever has come up with it has scored an own goal for Belgium. Whoever has done it is genius.
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“If I was an opposition journalist who could weaken an opponent I would do it.
“It showed you that there is maybe more desire to find negative news around this team than really get this nation together and support this team and enjoy the talent of the best generation we have ever had in Belgium football.
“And probably that was a lesson for all of us – that we are here on our own and we are here to fight for what we believe is the way we want to play and hopefully the fans – real fans – of the red devils can enjoy the process.”
Now Martinez has told his players to ignore all the ‘noise’ and criticism that is coming from outside believing that it has affected the team.
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He said: “ We were not happy with the two performances, we got the result in the first game but we were not happy with our performance.
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“The second game was the first time we lost a game by two goals in a major tournament, something we never experienced before so you can imagine we were not happy with it and the players were not happy with it.
“Then you see the storm on the outside and then you realise maybe we were listening too much to the noise from the outside before the tournament.
“Now we have some outlets in Belgium that are quite happy to jump on fake news. That’s quite astonishing. I think it’s made the group more aware that the less you listen to the noise from the outside news the better.”
Dries Mertens’ wife Kat Kerkhofs has also revealed how it was at the team BBQ following the reported clash between players.
She told the MIDMID MONDIAL podcast: “That was really awkward. The players were logically still very disappointed.”
But she added: “But I thought it was strange to read that there are tensions within the group.
“The next morning everyone said hello to each other with a kiss. They do all that. So I think they are all super sweet to each other.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
