Belgium striker Romelu Lukaku celebrates three times at the European Championship in Germany - three times too early. Because technology always throws a spanner in the works. Team-mates and fans suffer with the 31-year-old.
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- Romelu Lukaku is ready to score his third goal of the tournament in the second European Championship group game against Romania. But because the VAR always intervenes, none of the 31-year-old's three goals count.
- Coach Domenico Tedesco and teammate Kevin De Bruyne offer words of encouragement to Lukaku after the final whistle. The reactions on social media were not long in coming either.
Nobody is likely to challenge Romelu Lukaku for this European Championship record any time soon. The Belgian scored for the third time in the tournament in the 2:0 win against Romania - but all three goals were disallowed for the burly striker after video evidence.
The 31-year-old will therefore have to wait for his seventh regular goal at a European Championship. "It was unfortunate for him," said Belgium coach Domenico Tedesco about Lukaku's bad luck with technology. On Saturday evening in Cologne, it proved that the man from Italian Serie A club AS Roma had been offside before scoring in the 64th minute.
Kramer: "That's extremely bitter"
"He's already scored three times at this European Championship, even if the goals didn't count. But I don't think he's frustrated," said captain Kevin De Bruyne, offering words of encouragement to his team-mate.
Lukaku had already celebrated too early twice in the 1-0 draw against Slovakia. First, he was just offside, then the video assistant recognized a handball by his teammate Loïs Openda before the goal was scored. ZDF pundit Christoph Kramer showed sympathy for the tournament's goal scorer. "That's extremely bitter. You almost don't dare to be happy anymore," said the 2014 world champion.
