German VAR wears down Lukaku: Co-favorite Belgium embarrassed against Slovakia

German VAR wears down Lukaku
Co-favorite Belgium embarrassed by Slovakia

17.06.2024, 19:57

First sluggish, then futile: At the start of the European Championship, co-favorite Belgium suffered a defeat against underdog Slovakia. Star striker Romelu Lukaku even scored two goals, but was whistled back twice. For Slovakia, it was the second European Championship victory in history.

Defensive blunders, star failures, nerves fluttering: The eternal dark horse favorite Belgium has made an embarrassing false start to the European Championship and is immediately under massive pressure, along with its German coach. The team of former Bundesliga coach Domenico Tedesco lost 0:1 (0:1) to outsider Slovakia in Group E.

“It’s a real shame. We started well – and then we made a mistake,” said De Bruyne: “We could have scored several goals.” Ivan Schranz (7th) scored for the Slovakians, two goals by star striker Romelu Lukaku were disallowed – after advice from video assistant Bastian Dankert. This ended Tedesco’s winning streak. Before the botched start to the European Championship, the German-Italian had not lost a game (ten wins, four draws) with the Red Devils since taking office 16 months ago. In the other game in the group, Romania had previously won 3-0 (1-0) against Ukraine.

In front of 47,000 spectators in Frankfurt, the Belgians made a lot of headway in their first finals duel with Slovakia. Lukaku had the early lead on his feet, but was stopped by Slovakian goalkeeper Martin Dubravka (3′). Even in the minutes that followed, a goal for the 1980 European runners-up, who were missing the injured former Dortmund player Axel Witsel, was in the air.

Belgians failed in preliminary round of 2022 World Cup

But the goal came completely unexpectedly from the other side. After a mistake by young star Jeremy Doku (Manchester City), Belgium goalkeeper Koen Casteels (still at VfL Wolfsburg) deflected the ball to Schranz’s feet. The winger thanked him. The goal inspired the Slovakians, who are taking part in a European Championship for the third time in a row. The team of Italian coach Francesco Calzona played along cheerfully. Only a mistake by Dubravka gave Leandro Trossard the chance to equalize (21′).

Despite this opportunity, the favorites around top star Kevin De Bruyne could hardly think of anything. The Belgians have something to make up for in Germany. At the 2022 World Cup, the highly touted team failed miserably in the preliminary round. At the 2021 European Championship, Belgium was eliminated in the quarterfinals by eventual title winners Italy (1:2).

Tedesco pushed his players harder and harder as the game went on. The 38-year-old, whose starting goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois from Champions League winners Real Madrid no longer plays a role after a dispute in qualifying, was unsuccessful. The Belgians even had to thank Casteels for preventing a bigger deficit against Lukas Haraslin (40th minute). On the other side, Lukaku wasted a chance just before half-time (42nd minute).

Things didn’t get any better from the Belgians’ point of view at the start of the second period. A goal by Lukaku (56th minute) that was initially awarded was disallowed because the beefy attacker was offside. Dankert called back the Turkish referee Umut Meler. The Belgians’ furious attacks that followed also brought no success. Lukaku (61st minute) and substitute Johan Bakayoko (62nd minute) were unable to capitalize on huge opportunities – the match became increasingly hectic after that. Lukaku’s supposed equalizer (86th minute) was disallowed because of a handball by Leipzig substitute Lois Openda.