'It was a good plan!' - Kevin De Bruyne defends Belgium's tactics in France loss as Domenico Tedesco's team crash out of Euro 2024

Jan Vertonghen's unfortunate own goal led to Belgium crashing out of Euro 2024 as they went down 1-0 against France in a round of 16 clash on Monday. The Red Devils defended resiliently against a star-studded French attack until the 85th minute when Randal Kolo Muani's shot took a deflection from the Belgian defender and went into the goal.

Manager Domenico Tedesco's decision to switch to a 4-4-2 formation for the last-16 clash did not work in the end for his side, however, ace midfielder De Bruyne came to the coach's defence as he claimed that the strategy to strengthen the defence was taken after considering the opposition's attacking prowess.

Speaking to reporters after the game, the Manchester City star said, "We had a plan, we executed it well. With the quality of France, we knew we wouldn't have possession. We had moments to be dangerous. It's a shame to concede the goal like that, but that's football.

"A mistake in our game plan? When you give France a lot of space, it's very difficult to defend Griezmann, Mbappe or Thuram one-on-one. That's why we decided to drop back a bit. We didn't concede many chances. It was a good plan until five minutes from the end."

The 30-year-old will take a well-earned break now before coming back to action for the Cityzens later this month. The English champions are scheduled to conduct their pre-season in the US where they will face teams like AC Milan, Barcelona and Chelsea.