A slow step, a heavy body, 94 kg placed in the opposing area, waiting to start moving. And then suddenly, the spark of a ball to pass to a partner or the space of a thrust to get rid of a defender and find the net. It has always been the game of Romelu Lukaku, the Belgian’s unstoppable center forward, still in office in this new European campaign for the Red Devils.
For him and his team, Euro 2024 had started badly. A surprise defeat against Slovakia (0-1), Monday June 17. And two goals refused to the serial scorer, after intervention by the video assistance referee (VAR): the first for a slight offside position, the second for a hand fault by his partner Loïs Openda at the very start of the game. action, detected thanks to the sensor fitted to the balls of this European championship. The Devils, already, feared reliving an elimination in the first round, like during the 2022 World Cup.
And then, from the start of their second match, Saturday June 22 in Cologne (Germany) against Romania, we felt that the tide was turning. The game started less than two minutes ago when the very active Belgian midfielder Youri Tielemans tackled a ball in midfield. Lukaku recovers it, advances, shifts the spinning Jérémy Doku to the left, who returns the ball to him. Lukaku receives it in one of his favorite positions, with his back to the goal, for a throw-back on Tielemans, who completes the action he initiated (1-0, 2e).
After helping to launch this good Belgian evening, which sees the players in the red jersey, burgundy trend this year, repositioning themselves for qualification, we say to ourselves that Lukaku will finally open his tally, set at 85 goals in 116 selections. The AS Roma player shows the Romanian defense his full range, as in this action where, glued to his bodyguard, the robust Andrei Burca, he sends him to the ground with a hip thrust, turns around and hits (13e). More finely, he delivers accurately for his partners, like these three balls slipped to Kevin De Bruyne (55e58e91e), which the Belgian midfielder failed to convert into a goal.
Liberating success
Deliverance seemed to arrive on a devastating run born from a pass from De Bruyne, which pierced the Romanian lines (64e). Lukaku rushes towards the goal, scores, but this goal is refused again for an offside at the start of the action, perpetuating the striker’s bad luck at the start of the Euro.
The Belgians’ progress will depend a lot on the understanding between this scorer and this passer, with equally exceptional statistics. “ [Lukaku] did a good job today, he created chances for others, and for me he scored the three goals that VAR disallowed”, defended De Bruyne. The two men, despite their differences in style, know how to find each other, command and organize the Belgian game, as if in a sharing of power.
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