When the final whistle blew, officially the second best team in international football were at least stationed second in Group E. It is Fifa who deem Belgium below only Argentina in the global game, rather than Les Diables Rouges themselves, but that applies pressure.
So does their branding as a golden generation.
So, in a very different way, did the opening defeat to Italy. It was alleviated with an ultimately emphatic victory over the Republic of Ireland. Belgium answered some questions, yet not all. Theirs was a display of two halves: the first dominant yet rarely threatening, the second with the sort of incision a team of their talent ought to display.
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They were personified by Romelu Lukaku, whose double transformed him into Euro 2016's joint top scorer. At half-time, however, the thought occurred that his tournament may prove a repeat of his underwhelming World Cup, when he lost his place to Divock Origi.
Within 25 minutes of the restart, his hold on the striking spot was cemented, his ability illustrated. Lukaku can score from outside and inside the box, and did both. He is almost equally adept with both feet, though his latest double came with his left.
He is a striker with virtually every physical and technical attribute and a tendency towards inconsistency that renders him an enigma.
His second goal was supplied by another, in Eden Hazard. Until then, he had been the Hazard of the majority of this season, when he failed to score a league goal, rather than the one who belatedly found form and finished with four in five games when it mattered not.
He still feels an unlikely wearer of the armband in Vincent Kompany’s absence, a microcosm of the way captaincy in international football can be awarded on the basis of fame.
The stand-in skipper may be Belgium’s best-known player but their costliest was the classiest. Kevin De Bruyne was the constant, the player who flourished either side of the interval. He delivered a series of inviting, menacing crosses – Hazard blazed over after one – and few make driving runs with such verve and pace. One yielded the all-important breakthrough.
The Manchester City man surged deep into Irish territory. He picked out Lukaku, who in turn found the bottom corner of Darren Randolph's net, with pinpoint accuracy from 20 yards.
In Ireland’s defence, De Bruyne cost more than their entire starting 11. Ireland’s defence, however, was exposed when Ciaran Clark, who is enduring an increasingly traumatic tournament, contributed to the third goal by rashly going to ground.
In the process, Lukaku became the first Belgian to score twice in a game at a major tournament since Marc Wilmots in 1998. Eighteen years on, Wilmots has swapped the pitch for the dugout without refuting the theory he is the Belgian Bryan Robson, an inspirational captain who lacks such a galvanising prowess or the tactical nous to have a similar impact in the technical area.
He could at least point to some signs of improvement. The gambit of fielding Marouane Fellaini as a No 10 was abandoned after the loss to Italy.
Lukaku was supported by three genuine creators, in Hazard, De Bruyne and Yannick Carrasco and Belgium eventually benefited. Wilmots had changed both players on the right flank, bringing in Carrasco and Thomas Meunier, and those switches succeeded. The left half of Ireland’s rearguard, including Clark, proved fallible twice, with Meunier swinging in a cross that Axel Witsel, who was arriving at pace, converted for the second goal.
Stiffer tests await for Wilmots, however: not necessarily from Sweden on Wednesday but when a manager who was outmanoeuvred so comprehensively by Italy’s Antonio Conte faces elite coaches in the knockout stages. Then Belgium must prove if they are a team who constitute the sum of their expensively assembled, much coveted, highly gifted parts.
A generation does not necessarily produce a team. That is Wilmots’ task.
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