Jan Vertonghen takes swipe at Kevin De Bruyne over “too old” comments after Belgium loss

Jan Vertonghen appeared to take a dig at Belgium teammate Kevin De Bruyne over “too old” comments, after their loss to Morocco put them on the brink of World Cup elimination.

The Red Devils stumbled past Canada in their first group match but their luck ran out against Morocco, with goals from Abdelhamid Sabiri and Zakaria Aboukhlal securing a 2-0 win for the African side.

Belgium’s woes were compounded later in the day when Croatia beat Canada 4-1, meaning Roberto Martinez’s side slipped to third in the group and need to win their final match.

Speaking prior to their defeat on Sunday, De Bruyne had somewhat predicted the result when he completely wrote off his side’s chances of winning the World Cup because they are ‘too old’ – with Belgium having the oldest average age of any squad in Qatar.

Vertonghen spoke to the media after the game and he was heavily critical of his side.

“In the end we conceded two identical goals on the set piece, twice at the near post. Balls that should never go in,” he said, per the Daily Mail.

“The first time we got away well (disallowed for offside), the second time not anymore.”

“There’s so much going through my mind right now, things I shouldn’t say in the open air. I don’t think we created any chances. Where did it go wrong?” the Anderlecht star said, criticising the team’s attack.

“We probably also attack badly because we are too old, that must be it now, surely?

“We have a lot of quality up front, but so does Morocco, and they came out better today. This is very frustrating.”

It appears that all is not well in Belgium’s camp. They are now in danger of being dumped out of the competition at the group stage.

Roberto Martinez’s side will now have to defeat Croatia in their final group game to progress to the last 16.