[ad_1]
It was a classic of championship football: an open contest with no scruples, fiercely contested and ultimately decided by the endurance of one of Europe’s biggest stars, the brilliant Kevin De Bruyne.
The 32-year-old Belgian captain still carries the hopes of a golden generation on his shoulders, and even though it has entered its twilight years, he is still able to create some moments of brilliance. There are sprints and gorgeous through balls, there are feints and fake moves, but in the end it is De Bruyne who scores the decisive goal as always. He is fluid but also focused enough to chase down the goalkeeper’s long pass, get away from defenders and decide the outcome of the game.
De Bruyne’s Belgium now have their first win in Group E, with all teams in the group heading into Wednesday’s final round of matches on three points. The great Belgian teams of the past decade may be fading into history, but Jan Vertonghen is still in the starting line-up for his 155th appearance in 17 years as a national team player. Romelu Lukaku has made 116 appearances, although his third goal of the tournament was disallowed, this time for offside, with the referee ruling that he missed the goal line by just a finger. De Bruyne was the man to score the crucial second goal.
Of the new defenders, De Bruyne’s City teammate Jeremy Doku was the standout player in the first half, setting up Youri Tielemans’ opener two minutes into the game. As the second half wore on, the Romanians took more risks, but De Bruyne kept his composure.
Although De Bruyne is set to semi-retire in Saudi Arabia, he still retains a host of attributes that belie his age. He can still rip past opponents, and his run 18 minutes into the first half created a chance for Sevilla striker Dodi Lukebakio, but more than one opponent had the ball snatched from their grasp during that run.
This was De Bruyne’s sixth consecutive international tournament and he briefly mentioned during his UEFA Best Player press conference that it might be his last, which raised another question as to whether that was the case. “I was thinking more that there were a lot of youngsters coming in and we had some players who had played in other tournaments,” he said, “which made me feel like I needed to support them as much as I could.”
“I need to take responsibility because I’ve been with this team for 10 years. I have knowledge to share with them. I haven’t thought about whether this is the end of my career. I want Belgium to do well. We had good moments at the end of the tournament. Once I leave, it’s up to others, but I don’t like to think about that.”
The game was intense at times, but that was a good thing. The two teams are separated by 44 places in the FIFA rankings, and Romania is top of the table after beating Ukraine in its opener, but there is a gap in the midfield. The likes of Dennis Mann and Valentin Mihajla, both of whom were part of the Parma team that won promotion to Serie A last season, performed well, as did Tottenham defender Radu Dragusin.
Doku tried to displace right-back Andrei Ratiu as much as possible, and the Manchester City winger was the hero in the second minute. Tielemans initially won the ball, then passed it to Lukaku, who then passed it to Doku on the left. He ignored De Bruyne’s run from the left in the overlap and passed the ball to Lukaku who had his back to goal. Tielemans received the ball and scored.
Romania had collapsed, but they survived a tough 20 minutes. Belgium was still without the injured Thomas Meunier and Axel Witsel, the former of whom coach Domenico Tedesco said should be fit on Wednesday. Lukebakio started ahead of Arsenal’s Leandro Trossard, who came on in the second half.
Despite Belgium’s early breakthrough, which gave them a boost of confidence, Romania did not concede another goal in the first half. They had some luck at times, especially when Lukaku denied Romanian center back Andrej Bulka in the box, but his classic striker play ultimately failed to lead to a goal.
Lukaku’s second goal was disallowed after De Bruyne poked it through the back four and United should have scored for Romania. The stadium was raucous all night. The rowdy fans of both teams never quieted down. Belgium felt they should have beaten their opponents on several occasions – but it took them a while to do so.
Belgian goalkeeper Koen Casteels fired a powerful shot down the middle, with no Yellow Jersey player able to reach it with his foot or head. De Bruyne had a one-yard advantage over Dragusin, giving him enough space to score his second goal.
[ad_2]
Source link
