Piece by piece the gilt is flaking off what is left of Belgium’s golden generation. An abundance of talent, sometimes functioning, sometimes not, but a team without cohesion or an abiding idea, they were picked off by an unheralded Slovakia side who had everything their lustrous opponents did not. But boy, a fair amount happened along the way.
An unerring finish by Ivan Schranz after a defensive aberration was the decisive moment in the match and it came after just six minutes.
Just as notable, however, were the indecisive moments that piled on top of each other for Belgium and, in particular, on the broad shoulders of Romelu Lukaku. The forward missed enough chances for two hat-tricks and had not one but two goals disallowed for good measure.
The Belgium manager, Domenico Tedesco, said he had no plans to talk to his star striker about his performance and that seemed the only logical position to take. Lukaku is his country’s all-time leading goalscorer and a player who has commanded more than £200m in transfer fees. But his performance was no less puzzling for that and oddly typical.
Lukaku accrued more xG than the entire Slovakia team, and finished his second overruled goal with aplomb. But he also failed to get shots off when afforded time and space, saw heavy touches run the ball out of play and was denied his first goal because he was offside six yards out from goal. There were more than vague echoes of two years ago, when a hat-trick of second‑half misses against Croatia led to Belgium exiting the Qatar World Cup at the group stage.
Source – Ivan Schranz earns Slovakia shock win as Belgium are twice denied by VAR | Euro 2024 | The Guardian
