Saturday night was all right for a fightback as Belgium marmalised Romania to come back from their shock opening defeat to leave Group E all square. The Red Devils will now surely fancy themselves to qualify for the knockout stages but after a performance that was scintillating, if not without flaws, the question will be quite how far they are able to go.
Any conversation around the match will probably centre on the continuing idiosyncrasies of VAR, after Romelu Lukaku had a third overturned goal of the tournament decided by the tip of a knee. It may even centre on the apparently cursed nature of the striker himself, who again spurned a series of chances. But the focus ought to be on an electric performance by Domenico Tedesco’s side. Youri Tielemans opened the scoring after 73 seconds and Kevin De Bruyne wrapped up the match after 80 minutes, yet in between there was so much to admire.
Tedesco was in pragmatic mood and appeared to display some frustration at his team’s inability to kill the game earlier. Belgium had 20 shots and nine on target but could have been hauled back to parity had Romania managed their own opportunities better. “We are very relieved that we won the game and it was very important to get those three points,” Tedesco said. “But of course we missed one or two chances and I am not happy about that. It would be great if we could have won the game earlier.”
The Belgium manager has insisted he was happy with his side’s performance in the opening game, a 1-0 defeat to Slovakia in the only real shock of the tournament. He switched his personnel up for this encounter, however, making four changes including restoring Jan Vertonghen to defence and adding the more progressive Tielemans alongside Amadou Onana in midfield.
It made a quick difference. The move for the opening goal began with Lukaku driving deep into Romanian territory. He laid the ball off to De Bruyne, who in turn found Jérémy Doku, who dinked across the edge of the box before finding Lukaku again on the penalty spot. The striker held off his man, saw Tielemans approaching and gently laid the ball to his feet for the Aston Villa midfielder to drive low under the dive of Florin Nita.
It was beautiful, graceful, football with a little bit of oomph for good measure, and Belgium continued in the same vein for the rest of the match. At the heart of much of their good play was Doku.
Restored to the left side – his customary position when marauding for Manchester City – he was at times unstoppable. He dropped deep, held the ball, span and ran. He hung on the shoulder of the full-back and ran beyond him. He was almost impossible to shake off the ball.
Then there was De Bruyne, who was at his impish best. An incredible, Kaká-esque run through the heart of the Romania midfield set up the impressive right winger Dodi Lukébakio for a great chance on the half hour but Nita turned the ball round the post.
Just after the hour the Belgian captain’s slide rule pass sent Lukaku clear to finish calmly into the bottom corner, only for VAR, in its own time, to intervene.
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Finally with 10 minutes to go De Bruyne pushed himself on to the Romania defence before a goal kick cleared everyone and he poked the ball past Nita to score. “We had a couple of balls that came up front and no one was really running into the spaces, so I thought I would go”, he said.
As for Lukaku, he has more goals overturned than the competition’s leading scorers have actual goals. As in his previous appearance, he passed up a series of presentable chances too. But there is no doubt that Belgium could not have played as they did without their record scorer on the field. His hold-up play, connection with his teammates and dominant physical presence were a major influence.
As a jubilant Belgium support at the end of a raucous match cheered their team in victory, their hopes must surely have turned to going deep in this tournament.
Not many teams can match the verve Belgium showed, and the mood around the team has just performed the mother of all 180s. “Our mentality tonight was good,” Tedesco said.
