Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to the Italian football podcast.
Speaker: I want to start with Belgium, because so many so -called experts were predicting them to get to the semi -final this tournament, which I thought was something of a joke at first, but they were actually dead serious. And for me, I was very, very confident from the start, and I said that I thought they were going to go out in the group stages. And that is what ended up happening. But obviously, the headlines were all about, and it's related to Serie A, all about Romelu Lukaku.
Speaker: I don't think I've ever seen a game where a player has missed so many open goals, I mean they were real sitters, they weren't half chances, they were
Speaker: some of them unmissable chances pretty much. I've never seen it. It was just so Lukaku. It had to happen to him. And the poor guy has been absolutely slaughtered since then, including in the Ghanaian parliament, which has become like... That's been so funny. The Maguire and Lukaku banter when they're talking about the budget is so funny.
Speaker: Yeah, it is hilarious. I'd like to look at two parts to this. First of all, how does Romelu Lukaku's
Speaker: latest performance affect his legacy. Because for me, you look at his numbers as a whole, and he's the top scorer in the history of the Belgium national team, 68 goals in 104 games. He's got over 300 career goals for club and country. I mean, these are absolutely incredible numbers. There's very few players really in the history of the game that have
Speaker: hit over 300 career goals and he is obviously still 29 so he could still add to that but on the very highest level for club and country he's always fallen short and then for club level we know we've spoken about it at depth you know failed at Man United he failed at Chelsea twice brilliant for Everton brilliant for Inter under Conte but you know obviously we're talking about a Serie A level now but for Belgium
Speaker: You know, incredible in qualifying and friendlies, but his performance at major tournaments has been, you know, if we look at them as a whole, you know, not bad, but decent at best, certainly not that of a great player. And he's played at five major tournaments with Belgium.
Speaker: And he scored one goal at the World Cup 2014. He scored one goal, scored in one game at Euro 2016 versus Ireland. He scored four in the 2018 World Cup. They were all in the group stages. He scored four in Euro 2020, but three in the group stages and then just a penalty versus Italy. And then obviously Euro 2022 was a complete disaster for him.
Speaker: And he's had some really high profile clangers that have cost Belgium in key games during these tournaments. He missed two absolute sitters against Italy at both Euro 2016 and 2020. And then obviously the sitters, the open goals, I mean, virtual open goals the other night. I mean, is this just kind of like, does this just kind of sum up the story of Lukaku's career?
Speaker: I don't think it sums up his career. I think it sums up the curse of the inter -striker in this World Cup. Lautaro Martinez has not had exactly a lucky start to this tournament either. Even though those situations are very, very different, focusing on Lukaku, we know that
Speaker: from his career previously that he is the kind of player that needs five, six games before he hits the ground running and then he scores in clusters. Then he goes on these five, six, seven, eight game runs where he scores one, two goals every single game. In a fickle tournament like the World Cup where it's very short, it's only seven games between the first group stage game and the final, you don't really have that much room to maneuver.
Speaker: And I think Lukaku, given where Belgium was, he almost became like a symbol of that Belgium side, a little bit out of form, a little bit past their best, a little bit not in form, all of that at once. And they were sitters, there's no doubt about it. But I mean, same thing with Lautaro, I think, in the sense that, I mean, just, you know, the two goals against Saudi Arabia taking offer offside.
Speaker: I mean, just think about it. He got into that tournament. Those goals would have been, they'd been onside. His confidence levels are flying. They don't lose that first game. He doesn't get into, he starts second guessing himself. I think a lot of the times in these short tournaments, it's about, it's those tiny, tiny little details that decide it. And that's also true about Romelu Lukaku. I don't think it affects his legacy.
Speaker: at the World Cup or for Belgium at all. I mean, you know, he's shown over the years who he is, but I think it does show that his generation in Belgium, they're over now. It's finished. It's time for Belgium to find new players and new talents to build around. And maybe, you know, it's a shame that for Lukaku that he never really
Speaker: got that bullseye moment internationally. I mean, if we're perfectly honest, he's kind of lacked that in his career as well, except for those two years at Inter, where he won a scoretto.
