Lukaku broke the glass of the technical area after Belgium was eliminated
After the referee blew the whistle to end the match, Lukaku walked back to the Belgian technical area. In a moment of lack of restraint, the striker swung his fist into the side of the bench, causing the visor to fall off. Assistant head coach Thierry Henry then had to come hug Lukaku and comfort him.
According to the Daily Mail, Lukaku cried when he entered the tunnel of Ahmad bin Ali's stadium. Due to injury, this is the first match of the 29-year-old striker at the 2022 World Cup. Lukaku was brought on after the break, replacing Dries Mertens. He had at least four chances but missed them all.
In the 60th minute, after Yannick Carrasco's unsuccessful attempt to finish, Lukaku rushed into the stone but shot his right foot into the post. Not long after, the striker was loaned to Inter by Chelsea to hit the bar from a distance of more than 5 meters. However, Lukaku could be disallowed if he put the ball in the net in this situation as Kevin De Bruyne seemed to let the ball go all the way before the cross.
Lukaku's most significant miss occurred in the 90th minute, when Thorgan Hazard's cross sent the ball to the striker's position just in front of goal. But Lukaku seemed startled by Dejan Lovren's missed header. He did not control well, causing the ball to bounce and be caught by the Croatian goalkeeper. Two minutes later, Hazard crossed again to Lukaku's position. The Belgian striker swung his shot into the air as Josko Gvardiol leaned forward to save it.
Former strikers Didier Drogba and Alan Shearer said that fans should sympathize with Lukaku after these misses, because he was reluctant to play before the risk of being eliminated. However, Lukaku once again became the subject of satire on social networks. Many people share memes, funny videos simulating the bad performance of the Belgian striker
Twitter account @TrollFootball shared the video of Lukaku punching the glass with the comment: "Lukaku finally hit the target". ESPN wrote: "A night to forget for Romelu Lukaku." Squawka shared statistics, showing that Lukaku is the player who missed the most chances at the 2022 World Cup (four times) despite only playing 45 minutes.
