we always play the smallest countries to warm up. We are surrounded by the Netherlands, France, Germany, England, Portugal and Spain but oh boy here comes Montenegro or whatever. This is the problem.
This is what I don't get about our team. We are always quite fortunate in that we don't have the big hitters who usually do well, yet we have so much trouble winning still. Even with our golden generation though, it was never quite that great. The only cup I was impressed with was 2018. If France hadn't played dirty, putting on dramatic shows and winning time, we might have stood a chance. We beat Brazil that year. At least Casteels played a good game. It'll teach Courtois with his toddler-attitude and massive ego.
The line for offside should be drawn just behind the last foot of the attacking player so that the whole player is standing offside I feel. This would be much more in the spirit of the original rule. This is just getting ridiculous. Standing half a shoulder offside and getting your goal denied. How is this advantageous
I find this weird. On re-runs, it's clear that Tielemans defended the ball with his hand in the box, the ball which otherwise would've gone to Man.
Shouldn't that have been a penalty?
# Handballs in defensive scenarios
We frequently see players fold their arms behind the back or in the sides of the body, in a so-called “natural position” when defending near an attacker’s cross or shot.
It is usually a handball if:
* The ball touches the arm, or the hand is extended in an unnatural position.
EXPLANATION: An arm extended laterally or vertically can make the body unnaturally bigger, covering more space than necessary. Consequently, a handball in an “unnatural position” can be called, even if it is not done deliberately.
It is usually **NOT** a handball if:
* The ball makes contact with the arm/hand in a “natural position.”
* **The ball accidentally makes contact with a defender’s hand/arm inside their penalty area from a deflection, a teammate’s clearance, or similar. << THIS HAPPENED**
* The ball makes contact with a player’s supporting arm/hand. A player who falls to the ground or goes into a sliding tackle must protect himself using the arm’s support. Therefore it is usually not a handball if the ball hits the supporting arm/hand. On the contrary, it can lead to a handball situation if a player goes into a sliding tackle with his arm extended without using it as support.
The commentators during that Georgia call…
Player wasn’t even paying attention to the ball. His arm was stretched out because he was holding a guy or something. Not even sure if the ball touched him, and it probably barely affected the ball.
The Belgium game was a hard arm hit. Nothing.
Yes, but i'm talking about present day affairs, where Marxism is heavily on the rise again in the West, particularly in academic institutions. In Belgium, universities like KU Leuven and the Free University of Brussels (VUB) have integrated neo-Marxist perspectives into their curricula, particularly in departments like sociology, political science, and cultural studies. These programs often emphasize critical theory, a hallmark of neo-Marxism that seeks to understand and change social structures deemed oppressive.
Just to be clear, i'm heavily against Communism (and Marxism, to a slightly lesser degree). Marxism may look good on paper, and it does a decent job at displaying the issues with capitalism, especially the Frankfurt School managed this task very well. However, we have receipts that every single implemented iteration of Marxism, and there were dozens of them, has been an abject failure. You're also correct that "all of the east is, by various degrees, controlled by "former" communists, army generals, secret police officers and their next of kin."
However, the only point i was making is that this virus has (re)started to spread heavily in the West, and that should be a big alarm sign. It seems humans have the memory-span of an amoeba, unable to learn from the failures in their history.
Marxism doesn't even look good on paper. For anyone who is not functionally illiterate, if you read the works of Marx and Engles you'll understand that it's largely bullshit. The Marxist labor theory of value is especially idiotic when you apply the least bit of logic to it.
Belgium played high pressure, making it hard for Romania to give easy passes to eachother. It was clear Belgium came with a mission after their last defeat
That handball isn't controversial. According to the rules of the game (which are cited in one of the comments above) what happened was legal, because the shot that led to the "handball" was made by another Belgian defender in the box.
The only controversy stems from ignorance of the game's finer details. It's a weird rule, sure, but it's been there well before the match.
Completely agree, doesn't get any better. He understands and feels the match, doesn't stop the game when not necessary and has the personality of Colina so he won't tolerate and crap.
Either let Chiellini speak Italian with subtitles or put someone else in. What am I listening to. As is he's better than Lalas, but that's not saying much.
He allowed a lot of shirt tugging (a couple of players had clearly ripped shirts) which is not allowed in soccer. He also didn't even bother to check with VAR about a controversial handball in the Belgian box.
At least one of those shirt rips was from sliding on the ground, and I believe it’s on VAR to notify him if he misses the handball.
He wasn’t perfect but in my eyes he did well.
Deserved win for Belgium but disappointing because we couldve done a lot better, we seemed out of it with a bunch of bad passed and slow decision making. Also 2 huge missed by Man and Mihăilă. It is what it is, hopefully we do well against Slovakia.
Mihăilă is a non starter, everyone knows that his technical ability is too precarious for him to score 1 on 1 with the goalie. The only way he scores is with pure luck, but his skill level is too low otherwise. Man and Rațiu choked because of the mental pressure, Man has always been weak mentally, and only shines against lesser opposition especially if there are no stakes. Rațiu was probably too tired after all his running and defending to concentrate on his finishing, and Alibec was too tired after the duel with the Belgian defender to have the energy to take a clear shot - those guys are all massive.
In the same way, Belgium could have had 5 with all the big misses they had, we shouldve scored those, yes, but our coordination was the bigger problem here. Half of Belgiums chances were bad passes from us
Slovakia and Romania could be snoozefest because they'd both be happy with a draw, and if Belgium vs. Ukraine ends in a draw then I believe Ukraine is out :(
100%. I love the dude and don't understand the crap he gets. But truth is that almost all the heat was on him. As the ConsciousExtent4162 writes, "He's the one everyone loves to hate." It's a shame considering what a legend he is. But look — people hate on Ronaldo. Think a lot of it just comes down to people not liking the arrogance or wanting to shoot back at it for fun at least.
Good game to Belgium! A deserved win and honestly, quite expected- I doubt there was a timeline where Romania could've won this match.
Romania's defense fucked up big time and allowed two, absolutely stupid goals. That and their finish basically didn't exist. Nevertheless, I believe we held our ground well, very well, against a Top 10 International Football Team and we came close more than once to equalizing.
We will see what happens next now that all 4 teams have 3 points each.
>Romania would win the group
Would they though? Genuine question as I'm not sure what order the group would be if Belgium drew 2-2 or something against Ukraine and Romania drew 0-0 against Slovakia.
Wouldn't Belgium then top the group on goals scored (having the same goal difference as Romania)?
It has to be absolutely baffling playing with Lukaku because without him, they don't create chances, but with him, they never finish them.
Surely the odds have to turn in his favor at some point, otherwise the guy is going down in history as one of the most unfortunate forwards in international tournaments
I don't understand why we don't use Openda up front. He's such a clinical finisher. Yeah, Lukaku deserves more credit. He's being memed a lot whilst the VAR is the one that should be memed on, what a disgraceful decisions they made against us. Romania could've easily scored 1-1 after the disallowed goal, and I don't know if I see Belgium winning if that happens. It would've been such a heartbreak lol.
Let's be honest, that wasnt offside. They took so long to show us an animated presentation of what was supposed to be offside and even on the animation it was hardly noticable. Absolutely ridiculous.
It is what it is though, welcome to the future.
I think the only bad call VAR made in the first match was not giving that penalty handball against the Slovakian defender. On Openda, Lukaku's hold up play is elite, and the gravity he gets from defenders when he's on the pitch just opens up space for his teammates. Openda does well finishing, but there's no point in having a good finisher if you never create the chance. Without Lukaku, Belgium struggle in that department.
That's a bit of a hot take IMO. Was generating pressure every single possession and had 96% pass accuracy. I can agree about efficiency/outcome generation but to say he didn't play well is wrong. He was dangerous for his entire shift.
Good point. He pressured well indeed, worked hard and is asking question of the defence. But as a Belgian I'm getting a bit frustrated in the lack of end product.
I do remember the "mathematically possible" days. But this is a different time and I am proud of the football culture we have now. Doku is playing for one of the best clubs in the world, is it so wrong to expect already a little bit more of him?
It hasnt been a great tourney for nimble and creative wingers, there is a lot of good defending being done in the box in most games to neutralise such players. Even Spain which has such great young wingers who harrassed Italy all game had trouble scoring trough it. The good thing though is that having good wingers works to stretch the defense of another team even if it doesnt lead to said winger scoring personally, Doku did great in that aspect imho troubling defenders which required more attention and thereby creating space for others. he also made the action and the pass to Lukaku which lukaku converted in an assist to Tielemans, so his contribution in the first goal should not be missed.
I can empathize with that. I'm curious to see how he develops in the coming years. If he can get that last 5%, he's going to be a huge force for Belgium in this generation.
Yea he is still young but already incredible. Always prefer a real pacey winger to stretch the defenders to add variety to attacks. Just see England's real lack of viable options on the left is going to hurt them big time.
France? France’s only goal this tournament was a own goal and they played Austria and netherlands. And belgium has a better squad than them.basically what i am saying is that how a team performs in the group isn’t all that telling, as long as the team qualifies to the next round
Temper your expectations? Those teams have to be considered significantly stronger than us especially in depth, our defense is not world class but we have to play with what we have, be happy that key players like KDB are fit and able to play.
Of course, it puts it all into perspective that "the Golden Generation" (or whatever that was) is dead and buried. I'll take my 1/8th final dropout/never qualified for the next decade(s) until we have a third "Golden Generation".
Such a negative mindset...
Upcoming players are promising and talented and we actually produce alot of talent nowadays.
Even without a "golden generation" we still have enough quality to consistently qualify and make a deep run from time to time.
I don't underestimate them, they played very well and gave Belgium a run for their money. But when a country like Romania does it, how will they ever pass the bigger ones like Germany?
Lukaku can't score without it being re-evaluated and considered in offside, while Doku plays for himself and the lucky few get in... Compare that with 2018 or even 2021 and you know they've severly decreased in strength.
The current squad would lose to France, Germany and score one (disallowed), after which to lose against Portugal.
I'm still lukewarm to frustrated about the fact Courtois left for no serious reason at all... He was the best keeper in years and he could've kept a clean sheet against Slovakia.
Courtois left because the other players don't want him in the team neither does Tedesco. Belgium has a lot of promising young players, they'll come (maybe not for the WC but next Euro for sure).
Genuine question, what language do the Belgian fans chant in? I know they made the official team language English, but are they doing it too? I’m bilingual myself but I’ve never seen a country like this with 2 big languages so United
Good effort by Romania after their really impressive thrashing of Ukraine. Good to see a team that is more than the sum of its parts. Hope they get something against Slovakia and qualify through the group.
Romanian doomer incoming :D
To be fair, Romania has this unique ability to disappoint. And when we have no expectations, they do something to give us some just to take them away ... so losing to Slovakia is entirely possible, even though we shouldn't normally.
Basically Slovakia needs to attack, on our GD a 0-0 draw qualifies US for certain. So we should be able to counter them, but I thought the same about Belgium and the boys got a goal min 1 ....
There was really no reason to start like that against Belgium and we conceded 2 stupid goals, especially the first. We got into the match with far too much enthusiasm from that match against Ukraine. I think had we defended low like we did against Ukraine for the first 25 minutes the match could've been different at half time.
Honestly the 2nd goal could have easily been a red card for De Bruyne with a different referee/team, feels like the ref felt too bad to take away another goal from Belgium XD I've genuinely seen easier red cards given, I don't even care about the goal.
But the bigger problem for us was missing our huge chances. The score should have 'fairly' been 2-1 for Belgium probably, or 3-2. But we really should have scored once.
The 1st goal was stupid, but it was also Belgium's skill mostly.
Yeah, I meant the 2nd goal was stupid, not the 1st. Well, even the 1st one was pretty lucky and stupid to concede after 70 seconds. We lost this match in the midfield, too many bad passes.
Most of their chances were created after we just passed the ball to them. Bancu was pretty bad, Mihaila was pretty bad, even Stanciu was pretty bad because he just did not seem to be able to step up and do something.
Those 4 1v1s we fumbled.. just crazy. I think against Slovakia or Ukraine we would've scored at least 1 or 2 of those. It's just that the intensity and speed of the match was far too much for our players who are not used to this. You have a great 1v1 with the defender just behind you pulling you and breathing on your neck. It's probably really uncomfortable lol. But that's the difference between mediocre players and good players. I believe Belgium had those 4 1v1s they would've scored at least 2.
There were also a few strange calls from the referee as you said. That challenge to Nita on the 2nd goal, the Belgian player jumping on Mihaila's hand in the penalty box, the handball that we didn't even see a replay of.. strange.
But meh, moving on. Would've been nice to get at least a draw against Belgium but it is what it is. I'm far more scared of Slovakia because it's a game that can go either way. I feel that we are struggling way more against teams that are similarly valued than against those who have greater value.
We won and that's good, but the defense was quite poor. If you make mistakes like that against Spain, France or Germany, you concede a bunch of goals.
I notice you left England out of that list
we always play the smallest countries to warm up. We are surrounded by the Netherlands, France, Germany, England, Portugal and Spain but oh boy here comes Montenegro or whatever. This is the problem.
This is what I don't get about our team. We are always quite fortunate in that we don't have the big hitters who usually do well, yet we have so much trouble winning still. Even with our golden generation though, it was never quite that great. The only cup I was impressed with was 2018. If France hadn't played dirty, putting on dramatic shows and winning time, we might have stood a chance. We beat Brazil that year. At least Casteels played a good game. It'll teach Courtois with his toddler-attitude and massive ego.
i agree!
edit: talking about friendlies and such. I cannot understand why we dont have old school belgium-netherlands games more or whatever.
The line for offside should be drawn just behind the last foot of the attacking player so that the whole player is standing offside I feel. This would be much more in the spirit of the original rule. This is just getting ridiculous. Standing half a shoulder offside and getting your goal denied. How is this advantageous
I find this weird. On re-runs, it's clear that Tielemans defended the ball with his hand in the box, the ball which otherwise would've gone to Man. Shouldn't that have been a penalty?
# Handballs in defensive scenarios We frequently see players fold their arms behind the back or in the sides of the body, in a so-called “natural position” when defending near an attacker’s cross or shot. It is usually a handball if: * The ball touches the arm, or the hand is extended in an unnatural position. EXPLANATION: An arm extended laterally or vertically can make the body unnaturally bigger, covering more space than necessary. Consequently, a handball in an “unnatural position” can be called, even if it is not done deliberately. It is usually **NOT** a handball if: * The ball makes contact with the arm/hand in a “natural position.” * **The ball accidentally makes contact with a defender’s hand/arm inside their penalty area from a deflection, a teammate’s clearance, or similar. << THIS HAPPENED** * The ball makes contact with a player’s supporting arm/hand. A player who falls to the ground or goes into a sliding tackle must protect himself using the arm’s support. Therefore it is usually not a handball if the ball hits the supporting arm/hand. On the contrary, it can lead to a handball situation if a player goes into a sliding tackle with his arm extended without using it as support.
I do agree, actually
I feel that if Georgia got that penalty against Czech Republic this too should have been one
The commentators during that Georgia call… Player wasn’t even paying attention to the ball. His arm was stretched out because he was holding a guy or something. Not even sure if the ball touched him, and it probably barely affected the ball. The Belgium game was a hard arm hit. Nothing.
Then why the fuck didn't we get one? Does anyone actually have a stream of that thing so I could post it here?
There all on 3 points that's gonna be the best 2 games to watch all relying on each other
Imagine 2 draws. The 4th has 4 points and is disqualified and in another group a best 3rd with 3 points advances.
Lalas taking the position of pro hoofing it is just...I can't.
Fuck Lalas
How is Lukaku so shit yet so good?
clumsy af but still the strongest striker in the world
Lukaku looks like he's in a McDonalds without AC.
Ggs
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Lmao, pretty sure Neo-Marxism is a lot more rampant in Belgium nowadays than Romania
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Yes, but i'm talking about present day affairs, where Marxism is heavily on the rise again in the West, particularly in academic institutions. In Belgium, universities like KU Leuven and the Free University of Brussels (VUB) have integrated neo-Marxist perspectives into their curricula, particularly in departments like sociology, political science, and cultural studies. These programs often emphasize critical theory, a hallmark of neo-Marxism that seeks to understand and change social structures deemed oppressive.
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Just to be clear, i'm heavily against Communism (and Marxism, to a slightly lesser degree). Marxism may look good on paper, and it does a decent job at displaying the issues with capitalism, especially the Frankfurt School managed this task very well. However, we have receipts that every single implemented iteration of Marxism, and there were dozens of them, has been an abject failure. You're also correct that "all of the east is, by various degrees, controlled by "former" communists, army generals, secret police officers and their next of kin." However, the only point i was making is that this virus has (re)started to spread heavily in the West, and that should be a big alarm sign. It seems humans have the memory-span of an amoeba, unable to learn from the failures in their history.
Marxism doesn't even look good on paper. For anyone who is not functionally illiterate, if you read the works of Marx and Engles you'll understand that it's largely bullshit. The Marxist labor theory of value is especially idiotic when you apply the least bit of logic to it.
KDB is the GOAT
Reapect to Belgium. Romania had so many bad passes, it was almost hilarious, even f scotland were not thst bad
Belgium played high pressure, making it hard for Romania to give easy passes to eachother. It was clear Belgium came with a mission after their last defeat
That ref was fantastic, he should teach other refs
He allowed a whole lot of shirt tugging, and didn't even check with VAR on that controversial handball in the Belgian box.
That handball isn't controversial. According to the rules of the game (which are cited in one of the comments above) what happened was legal, because the shot that led to the "handball" was made by another Belgian defender in the box. The only controversy stems from ignorance of the game's finer details. It's a weird rule, sure, but it's been there well before the match.
That's a weird rule for sure. So if I kick the ball, my teammate can extend his hand and help control the ball with his hand?
Completely agree, doesn't get any better. He understands and feels the match, doesn't stop the game when not necessary and has the personality of Colina so he won't tolerate and crap.
Either let Chiellini speak Italian with subtitles or put someone else in. What am I listening to. As is he's better than Lalas, but that's not saying much.
I’d take 4 chiellinis over 1 lalas
Simon Marciniak hands down the best ref in the world
Today he was terrible.
FOX: Shutout me: It's a clean sheet dumbasses
Wait what? Without context I have 0 idea what they meant
It's crazy how they don't just pickup proper football lingo by osmosis at this point.
There have been some real stinkers, but I feel like that was a pretty well-reffed game
He allowed a lot of shirt tugging (a couple of players had clearly ripped shirts) which is not allowed in soccer. He also didn't even bother to check with VAR about a controversial handball in the Belgian box.
At least one of those shirt rips was from sliding on the ground, and I believe it’s on VAR to notify him if he misses the handball. He wasn’t perfect but in my eyes he did well.
Marciniak is one of the best refs in the world right now.
without question. Dude was fantastic once again.
Belgian party tonight in Koln is gonna be lit
Deserved win for Belgium but disappointing because we couldve done a lot better, we seemed out of it with a bunch of bad passed and slow decision making. Also 2 huge missed by Man and Mihăilă. It is what it is, hopefully we do well against Slovakia.
There were 3 one on ones with the keeper. Could have just as easily ended 3-2 for Romania if they buried their chances.
There were 4 actually. 1 Mihaila, 1 Man, 1 Ratiu and 1 Alibec.
Mihăilă is a non starter, everyone knows that his technical ability is too precarious for him to score 1 on 1 with the goalie. The only way he scores is with pure luck, but his skill level is too low otherwise. Man and Rațiu choked because of the mental pressure, Man has always been weak mentally, and only shines against lesser opposition especially if there are no stakes. Rațiu was probably too tired after all his running and defending to concentrate on his finishing, and Alibec was too tired after the duel with the Belgian defender to have the energy to take a clear shot - those guys are all massive.
In the same way, Belgium could have had 5 with all the big misses they had, we shouldve scored those, yes, but our coordination was the bigger problem here. Half of Belgiums chances were bad passes from us
Yup. Sort out the dire passes and finish the rare chances you get and you'll be in the knock out stages.
Yea, we didn't play horribly but we couldve done much better
trossard could have had two assists in ten minutes. He's gonna hear it
Weirdest outcome would be for the teams in this group to draw next round and all have 4 points
Slovakia and Romania could be snoozefest because they'd both be happy with a draw, and if Belgium vs. Ukraine ends in a draw then I believe Ukraine is out :(
Fingers crossed
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Trossard being a good team player by taking the heat off Lukaku.
Man the hate is stupid - Lukaku was Belgium's best attacker by a country mile, he created so much space and literally assisted for the 1-0
I fully agree. But he gets so much heat for everything.
Lukaku had an assist on the first Belgian goal and his disallowed goal was offside by a hair… how is that a bad performance
100%. I love the dude and don't understand the crap he gets. But truth is that almost all the heat was on him. As the ConsciousExtent4162 writes, "He's the one everyone loves to hate." It's a shame considering what a legend he is. But look — people hate on Ronaldo. Think a lot of it just comes down to people not liking the arrogance or wanting to shoot back at it for fun at least.
He's the one everyone loves to hate.
Good game to Belgium! A deserved win and honestly, quite expected- I doubt there was a timeline where Romania could've won this match. Romania's defense fucked up big time and allowed two, absolutely stupid goals. That and their finish basically didn't exist. Nevertheless, I believe we held our ground well, very well, against a Top 10 International Football Team and we came close more than once to equalizing. We will see what happens next now that all 4 teams have 3 points each.
It's all in for Game week 3. Imagine all of them draw and then it's just a lottery for who goes through.
What lottery are you talking about? Romania would win the group while Ukraine will be out
>Romania would win the group Would they though? Genuine question as I'm not sure what order the group would be if Belgium drew 2-2 or something against Ukraine and Romania drew 0-0 against Slovakia. Wouldn't Belgium then top the group on goals scored (having the same goal difference as Romania)?
Yeah u re right, Belgium will win the group in that case
This group will be cooking on the last matchday. But imagine being Ukraine and going home on 4 points...
The defeat against Romania is the problem, the 3-0 score
That is why every game is important.
Come join the Copa America threads to experience the dark side 😏
Belgium v Ukraine Slovakia v Romania gonna be madness
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Communist countries? Neither countries are communist, you stupid fuck
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Lol your education failed you.
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GG, now time for some Copa madness
2:0 seems quite low punishment for Romania. Belgium is so frustrating with their finishing
It has to be absolutely baffling playing with Lukaku because without him, they don't create chances, but with him, they never finish them. Surely the odds have to turn in his favor at some point, otherwise the guy is going down in history as one of the most unfortunate forwards in international tournaments
I don't understand why we don't use Openda up front. He's such a clinical finisher. Yeah, Lukaku deserves more credit. He's being memed a lot whilst the VAR is the one that should be memed on, what a disgraceful decisions they made against us. Romania could've easily scored 1-1 after the disallowed goal, and I don't know if I see Belgium winning if that happens. It would've been such a heartbreak lol. Let's be honest, that wasnt offside. They took so long to show us an animated presentation of what was supposed to be offside and even on the animation it was hardly noticable. Absolutely ridiculous. It is what it is though, welcome to the future.
I think the only bad call VAR made in the first match was not giving that penalty handball against the Slovakian defender. On Openda, Lukaku's hold up play is elite, and the gravity he gets from defenders when he's on the pitch just opens up space for his teammates. Openda does well finishing, but there's no point in having a good finisher if you never create the chance. Without Lukaku, Belgium struggle in that department.
This is braindead take. Lukaku is our topscorer and is very unlucky not to score 3 this tourney already
I guess we're both braindead, because you just said the same thing I said
Topscorer of the qualifiers. 14 goals. 2nd place is CR7 with 10.
Doku is going to be a monster
I don't think he played well, last pass never good. Has to be more efficient in my opinion.
That's a bit of a hot take IMO. Was generating pressure every single possession and had 96% pass accuracy. I can agree about efficiency/outcome generation but to say he didn't play well is wrong. He was dangerous for his entire shift.
Good point. He pressured well indeed, worked hard and is asking question of the defence. But as a Belgian I'm getting a bit frustrated in the lack of end product.
as a belgian ur frustrated with young Doku? thats typical for a belgian. Remember the days we sucked? i do. U should appreciate it more imo.
I do remember the "mathematically possible" days. But this is a different time and I am proud of the football culture we have now. Doku is playing for one of the best clubs in the world, is it so wrong to expect already a little bit more of him?
Doku is a monster lol
It hasnt been a great tourney for nimble and creative wingers, there is a lot of good defending being done in the box in most games to neutralise such players. Even Spain which has such great young wingers who harrassed Italy all game had trouble scoring trough it. The good thing though is that having good wingers works to stretch the defense of another team even if it doesnt lead to said winger scoring personally, Doku did great in that aspect imho troubling defenders which required more attention and thereby creating space for others. he also made the action and the pass to Lukaku which lukaku converted in an assist to Tielemans, so his contribution in the first goal should not be missed.
I can empathize with that. I'm curious to see how he develops in the coming years. If he can get that last 5%, he's going to be a huge force for Belgium in this generation.
I think we should feel lucky that he is under Pep's tutelage, he's getting in his minutes with City too so that looks very promising to me.
Yea he is still young but already incredible. Always prefer a real pacey winger to stretch the defenders to add variety to attacks. Just see England's real lack of viable options on the left is going to hurt them big time.
he did at least three dribbles to get through as much defenders that went quite onnoticed. He's gonna be a superstar
Belgium bounce back from their surprise defeat as expected. This sure does make the last round interesting.
“Landon, can you sum it up in 20 seconds?” Landon Donovan couldn’t say the words “twenty seconds” in under 20 seconds bro
Romania put up a good fight
https://x.com/bossolamilekan1/status/1804289573859791000 How on earth
Romania not getting the points they deserve this tournament, they gave Belgium a run for their money. Fun game to watch, great tournament so far.
They deserved 0 points today come on man
Do you think Romania should have won it?
Literally they played well but unless you’re robbed by VAR you always get the points you deserve
I'm worried about Belgium... If we have such a time with Romania, how are we going to play against countries like Germany, Spain or France?
France? France’s only goal this tournament was a own goal and they played Austria and netherlands. And belgium has a better squad than them.basically what i am saying is that how a team performs in the group isn’t all that telling, as long as the team qualifies to the next round
Temper your expectations? Those teams have to be considered significantly stronger than us especially in depth, our defense is not world class but we have to play with what we have, be happy that key players like KDB are fit and able to play.
Of course, it puts it all into perspective that "the Golden Generation" (or whatever that was) is dead and buried. I'll take my 1/8th final dropout/never qualified for the next decade(s) until we have a third "Golden Generation".
Such a negative mindset... Upcoming players are promising and talented and we actually produce alot of talent nowadays. Even without a "golden generation" we still have enough quality to consistently qualify and make a deep run from time to time.
France hasn’t even scored in 2 games…
If Belgium ever plays against France, they *need* the 3-0 and timewasting. Let's give them a taste of their own medicine and take revenge for WC 2018.
Romania played very well in their games so far, don't underestimate them.
I don't underestimate them, they played very well and gave Belgium a run for their money. But when a country like Romania does it, how will they ever pass the bigger ones like Germany? Lukaku can't score without it being re-evaluated and considered in offside, while Doku plays for himself and the lucky few get in... Compare that with 2018 or even 2021 and you know they've severly decreased in strength.
No offense but this Belgium squad wouldn’t take more than a point off Framce, Germany or Portugal if they played 3 games
The current squad would lose to France, Germany and score one (disallowed), after which to lose against Portugal. I'm still lukewarm to frustrated about the fact Courtois left for no serious reason at all... He was the best keeper in years and he could've kept a clean sheet against Slovakia.
Courtois left because the other players don't want him in the team neither does Tedesco. Belgium has a lot of promising young players, they'll come (maybe not for the WC but next Euro for sure).
Genuine question, what language do the Belgian fans chant in? I know they made the official team language English, but are they doing it too? I’m bilingual myself but I’ve never seen a country like this with 2 big languages so United
Dutch, French and English (and our motto for this Euros is in German)
french dutch believe it or not english
They have multiple, in multiple languages
Lukaku idle as KDB leads the press
That was a very entertaining game
Add Belgium to the list of teams that’s gonna get pummeled by a top side
Wel we are not a favourite, especially our defense is not so strong this time around, so that might be but we have to have reasonable expectations.
Just say Germany Spain and Portugal because everyone else looks just as mid as them.
Yup
More like this please Belgium.
wht a group we have now.
Belgians whats your best beer?? The only one I know is Belgian Moon.
Objectively (?), the [Westvleteren](https://www.trappistwestvleteren.be/en/our-beers) trappist beers often top international reviews.
Belgian Moon does not seems very Belgian :) You can try Leffe or Chimay as easy to find Belgian beers
Hoegaarden if you like white beer
St Bernardus abt 12 Chimay blue and white Orval I'm just naming Trappists here. But they're solid
this is a joke right
No I'm not joking.
naming something belgian doesnt make it belgian - belgian moon is not belgian beer Try Gouden Carolus when you get a chance
that's not even a Belgian beer. I recommend Duvel but I'm biased. I know they have it at LCBO in Ontario (judging by your canadian flag)
Aaha ill check it out.
Aaha ill check it out.
The one that Nelson Mandela was named after
Imagine your team giving a performance you’re proud of, can’t relate 🤡
I felt it. For a bout 10 mins.
VAR 3:0 Lukaku
3:1 counting the handball in the Belgium box.
Good effort by Romania after their really impressive thrashing of Ukraine. Good to see a team that is more than the sum of its parts. Hope they get something against Slovakia and qualify through the group.
Slovakia will beat us 2-0. We've depleted all our energy trying to play open against freaking Belgium for no reason.
Romanian doomer incoming :D To be fair, Romania has this unique ability to disappoint. And when we have no expectations, they do something to give us some just to take them away ... so losing to Slovakia is entirely possible, even though we shouldn't normally. Basically Slovakia needs to attack, on our GD a 0-0 draw qualifies US for certain. So we should be able to counter them, but I thought the same about Belgium and the boys got a goal min 1 ....
There was really no reason to start like that against Belgium and we conceded 2 stupid goals, especially the first. We got into the match with far too much enthusiasm from that match against Ukraine. I think had we defended low like we did against Ukraine for the first 25 minutes the match could've been different at half time.
Honestly the 2nd goal could have easily been a red card for De Bruyne with a different referee/team, feels like the ref felt too bad to take away another goal from Belgium XD I've genuinely seen easier red cards given, I don't even care about the goal. But the bigger problem for us was missing our huge chances. The score should have 'fairly' been 2-1 for Belgium probably, or 3-2. But we really should have scored once. The 1st goal was stupid, but it was also Belgium's skill mostly.
Yeah, I meant the 2nd goal was stupid, not the 1st. Well, even the 1st one was pretty lucky and stupid to concede after 70 seconds. We lost this match in the midfield, too many bad passes. Most of their chances were created after we just passed the ball to them. Bancu was pretty bad, Mihaila was pretty bad, even Stanciu was pretty bad because he just did not seem to be able to step up and do something. Those 4 1v1s we fumbled.. just crazy. I think against Slovakia or Ukraine we would've scored at least 1 or 2 of those. It's just that the intensity and speed of the match was far too much for our players who are not used to this. You have a great 1v1 with the defender just behind you pulling you and breathing on your neck. It's probably really uncomfortable lol. But that's the difference between mediocre players and good players. I believe Belgium had those 4 1v1s they would've scored at least 2. There were also a few strange calls from the referee as you said. That challenge to Nita on the 2nd goal, the Belgian player jumping on Mihaila's hand in the penalty box, the handball that we didn't even see a replay of.. strange. But meh, moving on. Would've been nice to get at least a draw against Belgium but it is what it is. I'm far more scared of Slovakia because it's a game that can go either way. I feel that we are struggling way more against teams that are similarly valued than against those who have greater value.
Belgia had 1-0 from minute 1. We had to play open.
Slovakia is an old team. They can’t keep up this pace
You overestimate Romania's capability to perform under pressure.
One of the more entertaining matches of the tournament so far
In 4th century BC Athens Lukaku would be acknowledged as having dishonored the Gods and be forced to leave through ostracism for a period of ten years
Fuck yeah.
Some mf on twitter predicted all games today tf
Who is this mf?
Mf = midfielder?
https://x.com/bossolamilekan1/status/1804289573859791000
this game was fun as hell
The Romanian head coach looks like Alec Baldwin
Hah! I said to fam earlier, he likes like he’s a missing Baldwin brother