Salah and De Bruyne lose Chelsea rejects battle to ‘out of shape’ main Belgium character | OneFootball

Romelu Lukaku might have thought those demons would never be exorcised. Almost broken by a personally devastating 2022 World Cup, his selection for the Belgium squad four years later was underpinned by manager Rudi Garcia generously describing a player with 64 minutes to his name at club level this season as “out of shape”.

Napoli want rid of Lukaku after an injury-ravaged campaign, but there remains a place in this Belgium team for the nation’s all-time top goalscorer.

“I’m not sure he’ll be able to start the matches, but he’s our best striker,” Garcia said last month. It was a point the 33-year-old emphasised before he even had a touch against Egypt.

Within a minute of his introduction from the bench, Lukaku forced a Belgium equaliser. His mere presence as a forward willing to operate in the area and between the width of the posts rather than outside it and as far away from a threatening position as possible caused a temporary malfunction in the Egypt defence, with Mohamed Hany bundling the ball into his own net.

Lukaku, through his sheer existence and persistence, rescued a country many felt he had let down in Qatar.

‘I don’t know why some people in my own country want to see me fail,’ Lukaku once openly pondered before the 2018 tournament; Belgium were doing a fine job of it themselves prior to his introduction.

Caught between an unsuccessful Golden Generation and what is more akin to a bronze cohort at best, this was a powerfully average performance from a fundamentally substandard team. Any flashes of individual brilliance were undermined by the same poor structures and mediocre coaching that have plagued Belgium for over a decade.

Jeremy Doku offered a mirage of energy and incision but his efforts were countered in quite the opposite way to how Cape Verde handled Spain: the Manchester City winger was officially fouled five times, a count which did not include the moment he was actively assaulted in a brutal first-half Hany tackle.

Kevin de Bruyne hit the post from one of the free-kicks Doku won, but that was about as good as Belgium looked. The player who scoffed at their chances four years ago as they were “too old” raged against the dying of a now 34-year-old light, with no-one on even a vaguely similar wavelength.

De Bruyne said it would be “nice to compete again like old times” against Mo Salah, but the removal of both players with the scores level and a decent amount of time remaining only highlighted their diminishing statuses on this stage.

Salah did at least leave with a clear contribution to the game. His pass into Emam Ashour was matched by a wonderful first touch and sublime shot past Thibaut Courtois to tease a first ever win for Egypt at the World Cup.

As it was, they could not hold on long enough, even just for a whole minute after Belgium’s perennial main character came on. With De Bruyne and Salah largely flattering to deceive, it was Lukaku who won the battle of the Chelsea rejects turned Premier League icons.