Belgium achieved its first victory at Euro 2024 after winning 2-0 over Romania in the second match of the two teams in the tournament, reported sportal .bg.
Juri Tielemans (2’) and Kevin De Bruyne (80’) were accurate for the graduates of Demoneco Tedesco at the very beginning and at the end of the match, respectively. That success was vital for the Belgians, who started the European finals in Germany with a shock defeat to Slovakia. The Romanians won in their first meeting with Ukraine. Today's result made the situation in this group "E" extremely complicated, in which all teams already have three points and everything will have to be decided in the last third round.
“The Red Devils” started the clash with a whirlwind with the first referee's signal. They imposed a very high press and already in the first seconds, which led to mistakes by our northern neighbors. It was during such an inaccuracy that the ball was sent to Romelu Lukaku on the edge of the penalty area, he in his typical style guarded and found Yuri Tielemans, who with a very strong shot opened the score for 1:0.
The footballers of Romania responded with consecutive corners in front of their opponent's goal. In the second play, central defender Radu Dragushin got to the ball with a header, but Kuhn Casteels made a good save. The Belgians gradually regained control of the ball and settled permanently in front of Florin Nice's penalty area. In the 12th minute, it was the goalkeeper who hung on a cross, but behind him a defender in yellow cleared. Two minutes later, Jeremy Doku found Lukaku in the box, but his shot was blocked by Dragushin. In the 18th minute, Kevin de Bruyne found Dodi Lucebacchio in an extremely advantageous position, but the Nice keeper intervened well and cleared for a corner.
In those minutes, the Belgians managed to get deeper and deeper into the Romanians' half and press them. They carried the ball with three in defense and used the entire width of the pitch, which did not allow our northern neighbors to demonstrate their compactness. Jérémy Docue shot dangerously after half an hour, but again the Nice keeper stopped him. By the end of the first half, Belgium players entered the penalty area several times, but Romanian defenders blocked them. At the end of regular time, Eduard Iordanescu's graduates scored another header.
In contrast to the first half, Romania's players had a second shot at the start of the second half, and shortly after they made a good attack through Valentin Mihaila, but the winger's finish was very inaccurate. Within the next few minutes, the Belgians once again controlled what was happening on the field, and in the 51st minute, Kevin de Bruyne shot very dangerously from the edge of the penalty area. Shortly before the hour mark, Andrej Ratsu found himself in an excellent position on the other side of the field, but just before he could shoot, he was blocked at the last moment by a Belgium defender.
In the 63rd minute, Jeremy Doku again in his typical style secured himself a good position to shoot, but the ball went wide of the post. Just seconds later, a great pass from deep split the Romanian defense and found the breakaway Romelu Lukaku, who showed off his great speed and fired the ball into the net for a second time. However, a review with VAR showed that the attacker was in an ambush and the goal was disallowed. It was his third disallowance in the Belgians' two games so far at Euro 2024, after he saw his goals disallowed twice against Slovakia.
Romania squandered an excellent chance to equalize in the 68th minute when a poor backhand header allowed Denis Mann to steal in and advance, but his shot was saved by Kuhn Casteels. The Belgians got a rather strange goal in the 79th minute when it was Casteels who fired a ball from his own penalty area, it passed all the players and went to the feet of Kevin De Bruyne, who made no mistake, scoring for 2:0.
Soon after, substitute Leandro Trossar also made a dangerous move into the penalty area, but his attempt to find Romelu Lukaku in parallel was blocked. Until the end of the match, Belgium players entered the penalty area several more times, with Lukaku's shot again being the most dangerous. Thus, everything in this Group E, in which all the teams already have three points and are separated only by their goal difference, will have to be decided in three days on Tuesday at 19:00, when the same time, both matches will be played.