The unstoppable Lukaku hits the ‘poker’ at half-time to set up a crushing victory for Belgium

Romelu Lukaku | Photo: IMAGO/Nico Vereecken

Romelu Lukaku scored four goals tonight in the first half of the 2024 European Championship qualification match, as the Belgian football team ended the selection with a victory. Belgian footballers beat Azerbaijan at home with a score of 5:0 (4:0).

Lukaku scored the first goal in the 17th minute of the game, when he made an accurate header from the corner of the penalty area after Jeremy Doku’s cross. In the 26th minute of the match, after a pass in the penalty area, Timoti Kastans threw the ball to Lukaku, who took advantage of his opportunity. Another four minutes later, Lukaku completed another unerring header from a pass to Vout Faas. The forward of “AS Roma” scored his fourth goal in the 37th minute, when he ended a quick counterattack by the Belgian national team.

In the second half, Lukaku did not play, the Belgians scored the only goal at the end of the regular time, when Leandro Trossar made it 5-0 with a shot from about ten meters. The Azerbaijan national team played most of the game with ten men, as Edijs Israfilov received two yellow cards in four minutes in the middle of the first half.

In the second game of this group, Sweden defeated Estonia 2:0 (1:0) at home. Victor Klaason and Emil Forsberg scored for Sweden.

In subgroup G, where the two participants of the final tournament had already been determined, after eight games Belgium and Austria had 20 and 19 points, respectively. Sweden scored ten points, Azerbaijan – seven, and Estonia – one.

The winners of the first two places of the ten groups enter the final tournament, while three more participants of the final tournament will be determined in March 2024 in the “play-off” games of the A, B and C leagues of the Nations League.

The European Championship will be held in ten German cities from June 14 to July 14, 2024. In addition to Germany, Belgium, France, Portugal, Spain, Scotland, Turkey, Austria, England, Hungary, Slovakia, Albania, Denmark, Romania, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Serbia have already secured a place in the final tournament.