Roy Keane branded Belgium’s draw with Iran ‘rubbish’ after the Group G favourites laboured to another listless draw.
And Kevin De Bruyne and his team-mates drew criticism from former star Toby Alderweireld, who is watching them meander towards a potential early exit.
Belgium were denied by a string of impressive saves by goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand and had defender Nathan Ngoy sent off in a disappointing outing.
Rudi Garcia’s men only have two points after they also drew with Egypt 1-1 in their opening game, and face a showdown with New Zealand next Saturday to salvage their campaign.
Keane ripped into them on ITV Sport, saying: ‘In terms of the quality of the game, I thought it was rubbish, really bad.
‘Belgium obviously had a couple of really good chances, but the standard of passing, movement, decision-making, so poor.’
Roy Keane called Belgium’s 0-0 draw with Iran ‘rubbish’ and said the Europeans were ‘so poor’
Kevin De Bruyne and his team-mates risk crashing out of the World Cup in the group stages
He also said: ‘When they [Iran] got the extra man, it was almost easier for Iran when they were sitting and defending.
‘All of a sudden, when they had the extra man, they almost didn’t know what to do with it.’
Youri Tielemans had a shot at the near post saved in the first half while, shortly after the break, Maxim de Cuyper watched in disbelief as Beiranvand got down low to deny him from close range.
The Red Devils had 22 shots in all, and seven on target, but could not find a way past the man of the match between the Iran goalposts.
Their woes were compounded when Ngoy was sent off for pulling back Mehdi Taremi, who had had an earlier goal ruled out by VAR for offside.
Alderweireld, who amassed 127 Belgium caps between 2009 and 2022, and who was part of their 2018 semi-final run, called out their top stars.
The ex-Tottenham star said via HLN: ‘This group is the weakest group of the World Cup. Then you have to finish first.
‘Were expectations too high? That is due to those last two matches before the World Cup [when they beat Croatia 2-0 and Tunisia 5-0].
Belgium are winless in their last four World Cup matches and have drawn two this campaign
‘Those were positive. It is better to be able to go to a World Cup in that way, but key players – with the exception of [Thibaut] Courtois – are not delivering. That is problematic. It simply needs to be a lot better in general.’
Manager Garcia said: ‘We lacked efficiency up front. I expected this kind of game, with nearly 70 per cent possession, plenty of crosses and lots of shots. We hit the target, but we didn’t test the goalkeeper enough. Playing with ten men didn’t help either.
‘We’ve had matches like this before and usually scored at least three goals. That’s part of a slow start to a World Cup. At times, we looked a bit hesitant. We know exactly what result we’ll need against New Zealand.’
Meanwhile, striker Romelu Lukaku, who again struggled to impose himself, told RTBF: ‘We had many chances, but couldn’t score. We played with too much emotion at key moments in the game. When you start the match, you have to play with a plan and stick to it.’
He added: ‘We have to win the next match.’
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