Kevin De Bruyne’s Belgium have struggled in Qatar (Photo: Getty)

Pablo Zabaleta has slammed former Manchester City teammate Kevin De Bruyne after he claimed that Belgium had no chance of winning the Qatar World Cup.

De Bruyne’s comments came before Belgium’s shock defeat to Morocco on Sunday, where Chelsea’s Hakim Ziyech inspired the African nation to a 2-0 victory over the side currently second in the FIFA rankings.

The attacking midfielder said: ‘I think our [Belgium’s] chance was in 2018. We have a good team, but it is aging. We lost some key players.

‘We have some good new players coming, but they are not at the level other players were in 2018. I see us more as outsiders.’

While there is an element of truth to this, many feel that the age of the squad is no excuse for the poor performances De Bruyne’s side have been putting in.

While they did beat Canada 1-0 in their opening game, they were decidedly second-best and following Sunday’s results their chances of even reaching the knockout stage, let alone winning the World Cup, have taken a big hit.

Zabaleta, who played alongside De Bruyne at the Etihad from 2015 to 2017, was less-than impressed with the 31-year-old’s remarks and slated the entire Belgium team for their weak mentality.

‘When you have some of your best players coming in and saying, “we have no chance at this World Cup, the squad is too old”, it will affect the mentality of this group,’ the iconic defender told BBC Sport.

‘There’s no passion, no fire. It’s really sad to see that group of players not fighting for their country. My big concern about Belgium is the players saying we’re not the team we used to be.

‘That’s not the mentality you bring into the World Cup. They still have enough good players to win and beat anybody. If I’m one of the senior players here I’m fuming.

‘Compared to Croatia or Uruguay, I don’t hear them complaining about the ageing squad. It’s not the quality.

‘They still have good enough players but if you complain about all those things it’s going to be very difficult. It’s not the right mentality.’

Belgium’s final game in Group F will be against 2018 World Cup runners-up Croatia on Thursday.

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Another huge World Cup upset.