'It should have been a red' - Rudiger slammed for 'reckless' foul on De Bruyne in Champions League final by Martinez

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'It should have been a red' - Rudiger slammed for 'reckless' foul on De Bruyne in Champions League final by Martinez image

Belgium boss Roberto Martinez has slammed Antonio Rudiger for his "reckless" foul on Kevin De Bruyne in the Champions League final, insisting the Chelsea defender should have been shown a red card.

De Bruyne went off in the second half of the defeat to the Blues after a tackle by the German defender, revealing the following day that he was diagnosed with an "acute nose bone fracture and left orbital fracture".

It remains unclear if De Bruyne will feature at Euro 2020 this summer and his national team manager feels the challenge should have been punished with more than the yellow card Rudiger received.

What has been said?

“Rüdiger is very, very fortunate,” said Martínez. “When you look at the replay, there’s no clash of heads. He’s properly leaving the shoulder against Kevin.

"He seems concussed and we will see the state of that. But that leaves a sour taste, because Rüdiger’s holding his head [as if he too was injured] – it’s almost that he wants to show that he’s hiding something.

“For me, it was excessive force and it was reckless. And it should have been a red card.

"Kevin is not a player that goes down for no reason. You can see the pain and it’s a swollen eye.”

De Bruyne's difficult year at City

The Belgium international's 2020-21 campaign was disrupted by injury.

The attacking midfielder missed several games because of hamstring and injury problems and made 25 appearances in the Premier League.

He left the field in tears following his latest injury in the early stages of the Champions League final as his side lost 1-0 to Chelsea.

When does Belgium's Euro 2020 campaign begin?

Belgium have been drawn in Group B of the summer tournament.

Their first game is against Russia on June 12 in Saint Petersburg, followed by clashes with Denmark and Finland.

Further reading

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