Kevin De Bruyne pushes referee after Nations League rule dispute

France took first place in Group 1 of the Nations League after a late win over Belgium, while Kevin De Bruyne became the focus of an incident involving football’s new injury-treatment protocol.

The episode came in the 34th minute in Brussels. De Bruyne had stayed down after a ball struck his face during an intervention by Maxence Lacroix and received attention from the Belgian medical staff. Slovenian referee Rade Obrenovic then instructed him to leave the pitch for one minute before returning, as required by a measure introduced during the summer to reduce delays.

De Bruyne reacted angrily, making contact with the referee with his arm and directing an insult at him. He was not booked for the confrontation and waited beside the touchline until the minute had passed. He later received a yellow card in the 57th minute for a foul and was replaced by Hans Vanaken six minutes later.

France won 1-0 through Michael Olise’s goal late in the match, moving ahead of the rest of Group 1 in Ligue A. Belgium coach Mark van Bommel said he had no major criticism of his players and praised their progress in applying his pressing approach, but accepted that small details had separated the teams.