Croatia 0-0 Belgium: Lukaku Misses Second-half Chances As Belgium Exits World Cup: Croatia, the runners-up in 2018, advanced to the tournament’s Last 16 with a 0-0 draw in their final game of the 2022 World Cup group stage on Thursday night.
As a result, their opponents, Belgium, lost in the tournament semifinals, and Romelu Lukaku of Inter Milan, who was making his injury comeback, missed a couple of excellent opportunities. Morocco advances as the group’s victor.
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Croatia’s nerve-wracking 0-0 draw with Belgium guaranteed their spot in the World Cup’s round of 16. The 2018 runners-up earned the point they needed to go to the knockout stages for the third time in six tries, but neither team showed enough creativity to win.
Within the first ten seconds, Zlatko Dali’s team came close to scoring when Ivan Perisic shot wide and Dries Mertens, who had been reinstated to the starting lineup for the Red Devils, scooped the ball over the crossbar after collecting a precise pass from Kevin De Bruyne.
Yannick Carrasco was called for a penalty after Andrej Kramaric was hauled down in the box, but the kick was controversially ruled out due to offside throughout the buildup.
Romelu Lukaku was introduced by Roberto Martinez at halftime since he knew his team needed to win to advance. He got the game’s first effort on goal shortly after, however, his tame header was saved.
But as things started to pick up, Thibaut Courtois was there to make three excellent saves from Mateo Kovacic, Marcelo Brozovic, and Luka Modric. At the other end, Dominik Livakovic came for a cross but was unable to get close to it, and Romelu Lukaku rattled the woodwork before somehow heading over an open net.
In the end, there was no way to break the scoreless tie. With seconds left, Lukaku missed another opportunity as his team was humiliated by an early exit.
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Player Of The Match
After this incredible performance, which included a sublime tackle on Lukaku late on, lunging in to clip the ball away as the striker was about to tap into an empty net, the 20-year-old, who plays for RB Leipzig, will have suitors from across Europe.
The defender also helped his team advance to the round of 16 by keeping players like De Bruyne, Dries Mertens, and Yannick Carrasco largely quiet.
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- Croatia has advanced to the World Cup knockout stages for the second time, having done so the first two times by at least reaching the semifinals.
- Croatia 0-0 Belgium: Lukaku Misses Second-half Chances As Belgium Exits World Cup. Since 1998, Belgium hasn’t missed out on the World Cup’s knockout rounds (with the caveat that they weren’t there for the competitions in 2006 or 2010).
