Kneecap offside – Lukaku is the unlucky one of this European Championship

Romelu Lukaku is one of the most successful strikers in history when he plays for his national team. At this European Championship, however, the centre-forward has been plagued by bad luck: three potential goals have already been disallowed by the VAR.

He is an absolute force, this Romelu Lukaku, as soon as he puts on the jersey of the “Red Devils”. The beefy centre-forward has scored a phenomenal 85 goals for the Belgian national team; only Cristiano Ronaldo (130), Lionel Messi (108), Ali Daei (108), the Indian Sunil Chhetri (94) and the Malaysian Mokthar Dahari (89) have been more successful in the jersey of their respective national teams.

Lukaku’s statistics are even more wonderful when you consider how many games he needed to score his goals: just 117. With his average of 0.73 goals per game, he is significantly better than the super footballers of the last decade, Ronaldo (0.63) and Messi (0.59).

And Lukaku’s statistics could look even better – if it weren’t for the video referee. The 93-kilogram box has already hit the European champions three times. Not one of the goals counted.

Two of them were disallowed in the opening match against Slovakia. One time, a handball by teammate Openda was sanctioned, the other time the striker started too early and was whistled back for offside. The disallowance of the offside goal in particular caused discussions afterwards. The non-goals had bitter consequences: the favored Belgians had to leave the field as surprise losers.

Accordingly, a reaction was required from the Belgians in the second group match against Romania. And it came: Youri Tielemans scored the opening goal in the second minute – and the assist came from Romelu Lukaku.

The striker continued to be active and kept finding himself in promising situations. But he was unable to score.

Until the 64th minute: Midfield genius Kevin De Bruyne launches Lukaku with a wonderful through ball, the centre forward is through and free in front of Romanian keeper Florin Nita. As confidently as an 85-time international goalscorer can, he scores to make it 2-0, turns away in celebration – and has to accept the next disappointment shortly afterwards.

The VAR speaks again, again offside, again no goal. And again it was extremely close. The title of this story is by no means an exaggeration in this case: the camera images prove that Romelu Lukaku’s toe and his kneecap were indeed slightly too far forward.

So it remains that Romelu Lukaku has scored three goals at the European Championships so far – none of them have counted. At least the Belgians, who have often been touted as the tournament’s dark horse favorites in the past and have failed to meet the high expectations that this entailed, presented themselves in much better form than in their opening match against Slovakia.

The “Red Devils” have lost their status as secret favorites this year, and the Austrians are being referred to as such instead. Perhaps a good omen for the Belgians if attention shifts a little. There is still enough class in the squad. And if Romelu Lukaku’s goals suddenly count…

(con)

In the NHL, the Stanley Cup winner is chosen in the very last game of the season. The Edmonton Oilers beat the Florida Panthers for the third time in a row, forcing a Belle.

They had already looked like the losers in this series, the Edmonton Oilers. And after their third defeat in a row, there was little to suggest that the Canadians would have a chance in the final duel for the Stanley Cup against the Florida Panthers, who were unleashed at times and seemed unstoppable with the chance of winning the first title in their history in sight.