Roberto Martinez hits out at ‘fake news’ and says bust-up reports will fire up Belgium v Croatia at 2022 World Cup

Belgium head coach Roberto Martinez has rubbished reports of a team bust-up as “fake news” and it will be used as motivation at the 2022 World Cup.

Belgium have disappointed so far in Qatar and will likely need to beat Croatia in their final group game to qualify for the last 16.

It was reported in L’Equipe that Kevin de Bruyne and Jan Vertonghen clashed in the dressing room after the 2-0 loss to Morocco. It has also been reported several big-name players are not on speaking terms.

There was a meeting held on Monday in a bid to bring the squad together.

“We were not happy with the two performances. Then you see the storm on the outside and realise that maybe we were listening too much to the outside noise before the tournament,” he said.

“Now we have some outlets in Belgium that are quite happy to jump on fake news. That’s quite astonishing.

“A World Cup is the biggest sporting event in the world and you could see maybe a country like France did a very good job with a story that became the main topic of conversation in Belgium.

“It showed there is maybe more desire to find negative news around this team than to really get this nation together and support this team and enjoy the talent of the best generation we have ever had in Belgium football.

“That was probably a lesson for all of us – that we are here on our own and we are here to fight for what we believe is the way we want to play and hopefully the fans – the real fans – of the Red Devils can enjoy the process.”

Martinez also believes Belgium will be fuelled by the negative stories.

“Whoever has done it has scored a great own goal for Belgium,” he added.

“If I could weaken opponents as a journalist I would do that. Whoever has done it is a genius.”

Leicester defender Timothy Castagne admitted De Bruyne’s comments about Belgium’s squad being too old to win the World Cup were on the agenda at the team meeting.

Castagne said the meeting was players “getting things off our chest” and to “thrash these issues out”.

“I don’t think Kevin meant anything bad by what he said,” he said.

“Italy won the Euros last year with [Leonardo] Bonucci and [Giorgio] Chiellini in defence, so age is not always a factor. I don’t think we should target one or two who maybe are not playing to the best of their ability.

“If we look in the mirror we all know we could have played better. I don’t think age is a factor and I don’t think it’s because of what Kevin said that we played badly. We’ve sorted out those issues and everything is fine now within the camp.”