France beat Belgium to a quarter-final spot thanks to a late own goal from Jan Vertonghen on Monday evening, ensuring the Red Devils' long wait for silverware at a major tournament goes on.

Belgium have repeatedly underachieved despite boasting the likes of Eden Hazard, Romelu Lukaku, Thibaut Courtois, Vincent Kompany and Dries Mertens in recent years - and the disappointment was etched on the faces of Domenico Tedesco's players in Dusseldorf.

De Bruyne was given the unenviable task of facing the media following Belgium's painful defeat and the Manchester City star was less than impressed with the line of questioning he came up against.

In particular, De Bruyne took exception to a question from journalist Palmeri regarding the latest disappointing showing by what has widely been labelled Belgium's 'golden generation'.

'Does it hurt that the golden generation didn't achieve a final once again,' Palmeri asked De Bruyne.

'And you say that France and England and Spain and Germany is not a golden generation?' De Bruyne responded, before and muttering, 'Stupid', and making his way off the stage.

"APor quA la generaciA3n dorada de BAlgica no ganA3 nada?", le preguntaron a De Bruyne tras caer en la #Euro2024

"ACree que Francia, Inglaterra, EspaAa y Alemania no tienen una generaciA3n dorada?", respondiA3 Al... y se fue llamando estAopido al periodistapic.twitter.com/qERCmLMf1Z

- MARCA (@marca) July 1, 2024 Reacting to a clip of the exchange on X, Palmeri called De Bruyne a 'spoiled brat' and reminded the midfielder that the teams he named had all reached a final at one point or another.

'Hey Kevin, little memo for you: the golden generation you mentioned of France, England, Germany and Spain they ALL REACHED A FINAL!' he said.

'Usual footballer that wants only question telling him how good they are. Spoiled brat.'

'He didn't say it to my face that I was stupid. He said it just when he turned his face from the other side when walking out off the podium,' Palmeri explained.

'In fact, I was then sitting in the media cafe watching Portugal v Slovenia and I heard Mexican colleagues next to my table saying, "You are becoming viral?", and I said, "For what?", and they said: "Because Kevin De Bruyne called you stupid!".

'I said, "When did he call me stupid? I was in front of him!", and then there was the reverse angle, like VAR, or journalists from the other side.'

'I wish he had said it to my face. Let's see what I could reply to that,' he added.

'To be honest, everybody is entitled to have their own opinion.

'Obviously, nobody is entitled to offend others and I always think the offence is the pronounced is defining the person that is pronouncing it, not the person that is receiving it.'

More Trending Slovakia manager speaks out on Declan Rice row and blasts England tactic

'We had a plan, we executed it well. With the quality of France, we knew we wouldn't have possession. We had moments to be dangerous. It's a shame to concede the goal like that, but that's football.

'A mistake in our game plan? When you give France a lot of space, it's very difficult to defend [Antoine] Griezmann, [Kylian] Mbappe or [Marcus] Thuram one-on-one. That's why we decided to drop back a bit.

'We didn't concede many chances. It was a good plan until five minutes from the end.'

For more stories like this, check our sport page.

Follow Metro Sport for the latest news on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

MORE : Rio Ferdinand predicts the team Gareth Southgate will pick for England's Euro 2024 quarter-final against Switzerland

MORE : Warning for England fans heading to the pub for Euro 2024 quarter-finals

MORE : Manchester United target Joao Palhinha would improve Bayern Munich, says Roberto Martinez

Post