The Red Devils of Belgium on Tuesday extended their unbeaten run in European qualifiers to 19 games consecutively after a 5-0 thrashing of Estonia. Tuesday’s game in Brussels saw new AS Roma striker Romelu Lukaku score a brace in the second half, his second consecutive brace against the same opponent in this campaign.
Romelu Lukaku, in the first leg in Tallinn in June, scored a 3-minute first-half brace in the 3-0 victory for the Red Devils, scoring the first in the 37th minute and the second one in the 40th minute to help his side win 3-0 away from home.
While his goals were a catalyst for the victory that night, victory was more or less assured in the second leg as the hosts were already 2-0 up before he got his second-half brace this time around.
Jan Vertonghen quickly opened the scoring in the fourth minute of the first half before Lukaku assisted Arsenal forward Leandro Trossard, who got the game’s second goal after 18 minutes. While the first half ended 2-0, the second half started brightly for Belgium and Romelu Lukaku got his first goal eleven minutes after the break. He would go on to add another two minutes later in the 58 minutes to make it 4-0.
On loan at Roma after spending the last campaign with Inter Milan in the Serie A, Lukaku was substituted a minute after scoring and replaced by Lois Openda. It was another substitute in Charles De Ketelaere, who replaced Leandro Trossard, that would go on to wrap up the scoring with a fifth goal with two minutes left and assisted by new Manchester City signing Jeremy Doku.
Belgium topped Group F with 13 points from five games, level on points with Austria, who also had 13 points but an inferior goal difference to sit in second place. The Austrians defeated Sweden 3-1 the same night to create a seven-point gap between themselves.
Daniel Ademiju Idowu
