“It wasn’t the best match start of my career,” Denayer admitted bluntly. “It is what it is. It was a miss, a bad pass. I’m not looking for excuses and I’m not hiding from the comments.”
“The national coach has not really said anything to me personally. He also knows that something like this can happen. I am not the first player to make a mistake and I will not be the last.”
Ruben van Gucht showed Denayer a fragment in which the national coach tells how happy he was with Denayer’s reaction to the miss. “That is a bit reassuring. And you can’t let your head hang either. The mistake happened after 2 minutes, so the match was far from over. You can’t lose your confidence because of it.”
“It’s ‘just’ football. Much worse things happen. A bad pass won’t suddenly change everything.” So we don’t lose Denayer for the rest of the tournament? “No.”
Vermaelen gets his chance in defense against Finland. “He is a good player with many qualities and a lot of experience. I can learn a lot from him because he has played at big clubs. At his age he still reaches a very high level.”
