Belgium midfielder Kevin de Bruyne summed up the results of yesterday's match of his national team against Ukraine (0:0) in the 3rd round of the group stage of Euro 2024.
"We gave our full effort in all three matches. The team kept running for all 95 minutes today as well. Everyone wants to win, and we tried to win too, but today it didn't work out. Ukraine is a difficult opponent, and it also had its own opportunities.
We tried to win and created chances until the 90th minute. But we didn't take any risks on the corner, because we knew that if we concede, we will be out of the Euros. Sometimes you have to take certain risks, and sometimes you have to be farsighted. Today we wanted to be farsighted, to play smart.
At the beginning we pressed the opponent well, but then we had difficulties to overcome the middle line. With the 4-5-1 formation it was difficult for us to press, but in the second half we changed our strategy and things got better. If you have five defenders, it's difficult to press high.
Zinchenko? Incredible guy. I played alongside him for five years. He was incredible at Man City, he remains incredible at Arsenal. He is a close friend of mine and I wish him well. But that's soccer - Belgium wanted to win and Ukraine actively fought us to win themselves. They have a good team, there are a lot of talented guys who will show themselves in the future. I wish them all the best," de Bruyne was quoted by the official UEFA website.