Belgium makes a statement with rout of Tunisia

Sports Desk: Belgium routed Tunisia, 5-2, in an action-packed game in Moscow on Saturday, burnishing its credentials as a World Cup favorite.

Romelu Lukaku scored twice, joining Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal at the top of the tournament’s Golden Boot standings with four goals. Eden Hazard also had two goals for Belgium.

Belgium got on the board quickly in the 6th minute when Hazard was brought down in the box and duly converted the penalty. Lukaku scored 10 minutes later, and a rout looked to be on.

To its credit, Tunisia attacked throughout the game and was rewarded when Dylan Bronn headed in a long free kick. But any chance of a fightback ended just before halftime when Hazard laid off a touch-pass to Lukaku, who drove home his second goal.

In the second half, Belgium took advantage of a stretched-thin Tunisian defense to make it 4-1 on another Hazard goal.

With the game in hand, Belgium took out both Lukaku and Hazard. Substitute Michy Batshuayi missed several chances to pad the lead before finally scoring to make it 5-1 in the 90th minute.

The incident-filled game had time for one more twist as Tunisia got a consolation goal from Wahbi Khazri deep into injury time making the final score 5-2.

Although Belgium did not mathematically clinch a sport in the next round, it virtually did so, barring a series of very strange results. Likewise Tunisia is very nearly eliminated.
 

Source: Agencies
 

risingbd/Dhaka/June 23, 2018/A K Azad