After holding a comfortable 2-0 lead early into the first half, Belgium ended up on the receiving end of a 5-2 defeat to Switzerland on Sunday in the UEFA Nations League.
It was a game where Roberto Martinez’s men defended atrociously with Celtic centre-half Dedryck Boyata having since come out to make it clear his side’s collapse was unacceptable.
The Breakdown
“I won’t be sleeping very well for many days now,” Boyata was quoted saying by the Daily Record. “At 2-0 up, it should have been a time for us to control the game – instead the opposite happened.
“Many of our players were below their best against Switzerland and I have to include myself in that. It wasn’t a lack of motivation and we didn’t underestimate them. We just had a very bad night defensively. It’s time for me to go back to basics and take it from there.
“After such a great World Cup, to come down to a level of performance like that wasn’t good enough and we will have to seriously analyse what went wrong.”
With Vincent Kompany and Toby Alderweireld having also lined up in defence on the day while a goalkeeper of Thibaut Courtois’ calibre was between the sticks, singling out Boyata would be extremely unfair.
That being said, as mentioned by the Belgian himself, his defending was not up to the required standard and he must now use what took place at the Swissporarena as a learning curve.
Overall, Boyata has been in decent form for Celtic this season and has been a key figure in the team under manager Brendan Rodgers.
But with the 27-year-old likely to seek a new challenge come next summer when his contract expires, performances such as the one against Switzerland can not become a frequent thing during this campaign if he wishes to make that real step up by the end of it.
