Belgium's Youri Tielemans on the group stage, his goal against Romania and last-16 opponents France

Belgium midfielder Youri Tielemans is already taking part in his fifth major finals this summer, having featured at EURO 2016 and 2020 as well as the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups.

In this interview with EURO2024.com, the 27-year-old shares his thoughts on the Red Devils' Group E displays, reflects on his stunning strike against Romania on Matchday 2 – Belgium's fastest goal at a finals tournament – and looks ahead to Monday's last-16 meeting with France in Düsseldorf.

The group stage finished a few days ago. Looking back, what were the positives and the negatives?

There are mainly positive things to be taken away. We qualified for the round of 16 and that was the most important thing. Another positive point is the match against Romania, in which we delivered a really good performance. Yes, there was the goal against Slovakia, unfortunately [from] a technical mistake. For the rest, we defended really well as a team. I think we can still play much better and add more intensity to our game.

You previously spoke about scoring from outside the box, which you did against Romania. Can you talk us through that goal?

I think we won the ball back quite high up the pitch and immediately went on the attack. There was a nice bit of play in the box and I was there just outside the area, ready to knock it back in. So that was a really nice goal quite early on [after 73 seconds] and that opened up the match for us.

Do you think Belgium are capable of scoring more goals and being more attack-minded?

I think we're making some nice passages of play from the flanks and are quite dangerous in the box. When we are in and around the area, we are going to have to – as a team – make the right choices, better choices with that final pass or shot, in order to score goals. That is something I see us getting better at.

What are you expecting from France? Where do their strengths lie?

They have a lot of strong points. I think they are going to show how strong they are on Monday, but they are a very clever team. They know what to do to win. They probably didn't play their best football in the group stage, but they got through to the next round. This match is going to be a very important one for us.

Does the fact N'Golo Kanté has been one of France's best players say a lot about them?

Maybe, yes. Kanté is a really good footballer. We know what his qualities are: he gets everywhere all the time, closing down, plugging the gaps. As a team, they can certainly use him.

Finally, what's training been like since the match against Ukraine? Are you ready for the next game?

Yes, we've got that sharpness in the team. Motivation and focus too. As long as everything is good in terms of the mindset in the group, then I think we will be fine, physically.