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.
Written by Paul MacInnes at the Cologne Stadium
This news first appeared on https://www.theguardian.com/football/article/2024/jun/22/belgium-romania-euro-2024-match-report under the title “De Bruyne and Tielemans sink Romania to get Belgium back on track”. Bolchha Nepal is not responsible or affiliated towards the opinion expressed in this news article.
