At Heysel, the Italians were stronger, like quite a few countries which will travel to Brussels in the coming months. Even if it took a mistake from De Cuyper at the start of the game for Tonali to score the only goal. And a diligent or lucky Donnarumma to avoid the equalizer four times in the second half.
The meatball is one of the rare links between Belgian and Italian cuisines, but we were more focused on rabbit sauce than polpete on Thursday. The three central defenders have all floundered at one point or another. Faes can play a Euromillions ticket before flying to Budapest on Saturday. It’s a miracle not to have directly caused a goal despite three major blunders.
An altercation took place between Faes and Theate, who shoved his teammate
Domenico Tedesco can refrain from going to his bookseller. His tests were not successful. Neither his five-man defense, nor his Engels bet, too short for this level.
But it is the association of Openda and Lukaku which will remain the coach’s biggest failure. As in Austria last year, the two attackers showed no signs of a potential future for their duo. Lukaku suffered in the duels against the giant Bastoni and Openda had left his Halloween costume, that of Casper the friendly ghost. In the first half, the Leipzig forward touched… two balls. Almost unheard of at this level.
It wasn’t all his fault, far from it. There was no creativity behind it. Trossard was supposed to embody it but he spent his time running too far from the opposing goal or slipping on an unworthy pitch. It is an understatement to say that the 41,367 spectators did not see much on Thursday in the mild autumnal Brussels.
In Budapest to ensure the dam
Which brings us back to our new condition, that of an average team when it is deprived of De Bruyne and Doku at the same time. Lukaku will not be able to do everything alone. And certainly not this Lukaku. The Belgian fans understood this by not whistling the players after the defeat, far from the “Tedesco resignation” of last month.
On Sunday, the group stage of the League of Nations will end for the Belgians, against Israel in Budapest. And thanks to our best French friends who offered a first point to our future opponent, the meeting will not count for nothing.
The Israelis could still overtake the Devils by winning by more than two goals, relegating them to last place and a direct descent to League B. Which would have been a strange view a few months ago has become a reality. A distant reality but a reality nonetheless.
