Belgium kickstarted their Euro 2024 campaign with a 2-0 win over Romania in Cologne.
An early Youri Tielemans opener set the scene for what would be an exhilarating, end-to-end game and there were plenty of chances for both sides.
Following the third-quickest goal in history at the European Championship Belgium continued to push.
Romelu Lukaku had a goal ruled out after being judged to have been offside by the smallest of margins, while the Chelsea striker had two other big chances to score.
Kevin De Bruyne grabbed the only other goal of the game, latching on to a through ball from a goal-kick and slotting home to earn the Red Devils all three points.
As It Happened
It took just 65 seconds for Belgium to make a statement and open the scoring.
Some great build-up play involving De Bruyne and Lukaku saw the ball fall to Tielemans, who has scored from very similar positions across his career.
The performance we needed. 💪 #BELROU #WirSchaffenDas #EURO2024 pic.twitter.com/kM83zvX2A4
— Belgian Red Devils (@BelRedDevils) June 22, 2024
And sure enough, the Aston Villa midfielder struck a sweet strike through the Romania defence and into the back of the net, giving the Red Devils their perfect start.
Lukaku looked like he was on a personal mission to make up for the misses he had against Slovakia and was involved a lot in the first half.
He was using his body well, having the ball played into feet and either laying it back off or turning and trying to get a shot away on goal.
There was an opportunity 13 minutes in where a Romania defender simply bounced off him and his shot on the turn just missed the target.
Dodi Lukebakio, who had been drafted in following their dismal performance in the opening match, then tested goalkeeper Florin Nita with a curling left-footed effort, but it was a good height for the stopper.
With things starting to settle down, Belgium unsurprisingly retained much of the ball and broke into Romania’s box on plenty more…
Source link : https://www.101greatgoals.com/news/belgium-2-0-romania-euro-2024/
Author : Mitch Fretton
Publish date : 2024-06-22 20:53:56
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