The National's Sport cover for the Sunday, June 19 issue, featuring Romelu Lukaku and Belgium as they righted their ship at Euro 2016.
The result, a solid 3-0 defeat of Republic of Ireland, was however more convincing than the actual display. Richard Jolly shares his lingering reservations:
“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.
“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.
“He is a striker with virtually every physical and technical attribute and a tendency towards inconsistency that renders him an enigma.
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“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.
“Stiffer tests await for Marc 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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