Van Bommel: De Cuyper Could Have Stopped Olise Goal
Belgium coach Mark van Bommel said Maxim De Cuyper should have done more to prevent Michael Olise's late winner in France's 2-1 Nations League win in Brussels.
Mark van Bommel said Maxim De Cuyper should have done better for the goal that beat Belgium in Brussels, with Michael Olise's late run settling a 2-1 defeat to France in the Nations League.
Olise, who scored four times for France since his March 2026 call-up and arrived off a Bundesliga hat-trick for Bayern against Union Berlin, shook off De Cuyper before finishing to make it France's sixth win in a row over Belgium. Van Bommel felt his left-back, on loan at Brighton since August with five goals this season, had the chance to stop it.
"Deze wedstrijd wordt op een detail beslist, net zoals die tegen Spanje. Daar moeten wij ook naartoe. Alleen kan dat nog een tijdje duren. We zijn nog maar een week onderweg, hè," Van Bommel told VTM.
On De Cuyper specifically, he added: "Hij probeerde het wel, maar je moet erbovenop springen. Dit zijn de momenten waarop dat moet."
France left out Ousmane Dembélé and started without several first-choice attackers, fielding Maghnes Akliouche among the changes — the Monaco midfielder was called into Zinedine Zidane's squad only last week as a late replacement for the injured Warren Zaïre-Emery. Van Bommel dismissed the idea that this amounted to a weakened French side. "Ze hebben een aardige bank. Je doet jongens tekort als je nu zegt dat je met een B-ploeg hebt gespeeld," he said.
Roméo Lavia made his first competitive start for Belgium in midfield and drew praise from his coach, who said he had considered substituting him but kept him on because of his influence on the game. Van Bommel added that caution would be needed with the Chelsea midfielder before Friday's match against Turkey, though he said any workload decisions would remain his own to make. Lavia himself preferred not to dwell on his display, saying he was disappointed by the result and wanted to focus on preparing for the next fixture.
Belgium next play Turkey on Friday, while France, unbeaten in the head-to-head run and already assured of a strong Nations League position, continue their own campaign. San Marino sit bottom of the same group with no points from their opening match. If Van Bommel's side carry the pressing approach shown against France into the Turkey game, the manner of Friday's result may say more about Belgium's direction under him than Sunday's scoreline did.
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