Lukaku's XG was twice the entire opposition.
One of the great Croatia World Cup performances there from Lukaku...
And he didn't even play the first half (with good cause, it seems)
Big changes ahead for Belgium - you'd have to presume Martinez (and Barry) will move on, and a fair few players will be retiring too
Lukaku's XG was twice the entire opposition.
Author of Never Felt Better (History, Film Reviews).
Absolute nightmare for Lukaku. Georgie Kelly would have had a hat trick
Shocked to learn Gvardiol is only 20,he looks the real deal and his performance is only more impressive because it was beside Dejan Lovren!
Irish by birth ,Harps by the grace of god.
Yeah BBC commentary team was heaping praise on him.
Martinez resigned as Belgium manager already…
Irish by birth ,Harps by the grace of god.
Thought we were heading for a boring standard night at half time,everything went mental since then!
Irish by birth ,Harps by the grace of god.
Crazy old World Cup so far it has to be said! Just need Costa Rica to get another now to send Japan out.
Author of Never Felt Better (History, Film Reviews).
Author of Never Felt Better (History, Film Reviews).
And now we have that second for Costa Rica!
This is mental stuff. Mental. (and i am not even watching!)
So as it stands, it's Japan v Croatia and Spain v Morocco in the next.
So what incentive have Spain to equalise? They've got the perfect outcome right now
Good point actually!
They've tried in fairness to them, had two good chances to get the equaliser. For some of these players this is an audition.
Author of Never Felt Better (History, Film Reviews).
Spain happy enough there ,a perfect outcome for them after all that!
Irish by birth ,Harps by the grace of god.
A remarkable night of football. Germany have fallen very far, but I expect Flick will be permitted more time.
Author of Never Felt Better (History, Film Reviews).
Forgot that Croatian offside, that second Japanese goal is the tightest call I think I've ever seen in a game of football. It's literal centimeters, and I presume done by eyeball since goalline tech doesn't extend. They couldn't possibly have been sure one way or another, so the question is whether it was better to err on the side of the attacking team or the defending. My heart says the first one, my head says the other. If that was ruled out I don't think many would complain.
Author of Never Felt Better (History, Film Reviews).
I think technically 1% of the ball might have remained in but in absence of goal-line tech proof it’d almost always be given out of play. But even crazier imho is how the player keeping the ball in play put enough downward pressure on the ball to bounce it up and over a sliding Maeda to set up the tap in.
A bad outcome for England I reckon as I think their path to final is a bit harder now.
Also, in context of the Kenny debate two things:
Football is very capricious. Lukaku scores, Croatia fail. Instead, Croatia are well organised blah blah
And the cliche about no easy games is becoming increasingly true. That’s not excusing Luxembourg or Armenia, but an increasing number of good teams are getting some embarrassing results and some countries we’d have looked down our noses at 20 years ago are now more consistently competitive. International footy is fascinating.
Japan
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