After being frustrated by the Irish in the first half, Belgium broke through when Lukaku struck three minutes after the restart, atoning for his profligacy in front of goal in Monday’s 2-0 loss to Italy.
Midfielder Axel Witsel headed home in the 61st minute and Lukaku got his second and Belgium’s third 20 minutes from the end as Belgium came good at last, albeit against a limited Ireland team who worked hard but created little.
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Here’s the best of the post-match interviews from the match:
“I know I’ve had a good season, I’ve had a good preparation and I’m very calm; the team as well. We had a team meeting two days ago, where everyone could express their opinion and yes, we played well today.”
“The team responded very well. We did what we had to do, we had to play good football and keep a clean sheet. That’s what we did; now on to the next game.”
Romelu Lukaku's game by numbers:
— Squawka Football (@Squawka) June 18, 2016
91% pass accuracy
2 shots
2 goals
1 chance created
Back in business. pic.twitter.com/Xy9GfGr1ym
“The big thing for us was to make sure that we started the second half that bit quicker, that bit better in possession, and we didn’t do that. We left ourselves too open to that counterattack.”
“We have to take the positives from the first half tonight, and the game against Sweden [on matchday one] as well. And if we do that with a bit more discipline and control I think we can get something from Italy. We’ll dust ourselves down, see how everybody is and go for Italy in Lille.”
“Unity is very important. We win and lose together. With Romelu Lukaku, we wanted to give him some confidence.”
“I think he scored four goals in four matches but when he missed against Italy everyone was saying it’s all different. I just needed to explains things to him and make sure he knew I trusted him. He did what I expected today.”
Brilliant goal by Lukaku for Belgium pic.twitter.com/U3WDsnkCXt
— Terje (@TerjeGooner) June 18, 2016
“We accept the fact that individually Belgium are as talented a team as any in the competition but the goals we gave away were not good from our viewpoint.”
“They pushed us back in the first half and a few days against Sweden we played exceptionally well with the ball, today when we had it we loomed a bit nervous and gave it away a bit readily.”
“We hoped to rectify that at half-time but they broke on us for our first goal. Then you start to chase the game a little bit and get stretched and very fine players can punish you, and that is what happened.”
