Belgium have been far from impressive this World Cup, but they will lament three golden bites at the cherry to seal their place in the knockout stages. Unfortunately for Romelu Lukaku, they all belonged to him.
With Morocco beating Canada, Belgium knew that only a victory would be enough against Croatia to make the knockout stages. Roberto Martinez opted to send on Lukaku, who is lacking fitness, in order to save the day.
Within minutes, he had a chance to do just that.
#FIFAWorldCupQatar2022 #Qatar2022#BEL | #COR #BELCOR
– ????: @rKLD0 pic.twitter.com/v0I3iU8aLB— — (@McelroyHallie) December 1, 2022
His second miss may well have been disallowed for the ball going out of play, had he managed to guide the header on target.
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– ????: @rKLD0 pic.twitter.com/lCR5qTfk5t— — (@McelroyHallie) December 1, 2022
The third opportunity again came after Dominik Livakovic missed and the defence missed the ball entirely again.
LUKAKU MISSES AN UNBELIEVABLE CHANCE!pic.twitter.com/3MSiCNTMrP
— Fast GøaIs (@i6astv) December 1, 2022
Lukaku was comforted by Thierry Henry at the final whistle, but it will be long flight back for the on-loan Chelsea forward. As much as he was lacking fitness, and there were mitigating factors in each chance, Martinez would have put his job contract on Lukaku scoring at least one of them.
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