Pablo Zabaleta has slammed Kevin De Bruyne and insisted that the rest of the Belgium squad should be fuming with the midfielder.
De Bruyne had claimed that the Red Devils have "no chance" of winning the World Cup this year ahead of their game with Morocco. The Manchester City star insisted that his country had missed their chance to win the biggest tournament in football as they had an ageing squad.
Belgium proceeded to lose to Morocco, a major blow as they look to progress to the Last 16 in Qatar. Roberto Martinez's men are now third in Group F and must beat Croatia to advance, though De Bruyne had already admitted he does not believe they can win the tournament.
“No chance, we’re too old. I think our chance was 2018. We have a good team, but it is ageing. We lost some key players. We have some good new players coming, but they are not at the level other players were in 2018. I see us more as outsiders,” he told The Guardian.
Those comments have left Zabaleta furious though and he has now blasted his former Manchester City team-mate. The Argentine believes that De Bruyne's comments have affected the mentality of the Belgian squad.
"When you have some of your best players coming in and saying, 'we have no chance at this World Cup, the squad is too old', it will affect the mentality of this group. There’s no passion, no fire," he told BBC Sport.
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"It’s really sad to see that group of players not fighting for their country. My big concern about Belgium is the players saying we’re not the team we used to be. That's not the mentality you bring into the World Cup.
"They still have enough good players to win and beat anybody. If I'm one of the senior players here I'm fuming. Maybe they're playing some mind games. They have two or three players who aren't young but some of the rest of the team."
Zabaleta then pointed to Belgium's rivals in the group Croatia, who are top of Group F, and South American side Uruguay as a way to further hit back at De Bruyne. He insisted that Belgium's squad were in fact not too old in comparison to those teams.
"Compared to Croatia or Uruguay I don't hear them complaining about the ageing squad. It's not the quality. They still have good enough players but if you complain about all those things it's going to be very difficult," Zabaleta added.
"It's not the right mentality. 31, 32, is that old in football?. Look at Croatia, Modric, 37, Perisic, Lovren. I mean Uruguay, Suarez, Godin, Caceres, I didn’t have them then complaining ‘we’re an old squad, we’re an ageing squad’ and all that.
"No, that’s not the right mentality and I think that’s the main problem for Belgium. It’s not the quality because I feel they still have good enough players to beat anybody in this World Cup, but of course if you’re already complaining about all these things and not right at it, it’s going to be very difficult for them.”
