Belgium maintain 100% record as Finland crash out of Euro 2020

Belgium maintained their perfect Euro 2020 record with an own goal from Lukáš Hrádecký and a Romelu Lukaku strike enough to beat Finland 2-0 and send their opponents home.

Due to the Red Devils’ progression to the round of 16 already confirmed, Roberto Martinez opted to make eight changes to the side that edged out Denmark in Copenhagen.

One of those to make their first start of the tournament was veteran defender Thomas Vermaelen. It was the former Arsenal defender’s header from a Kevin De Bruyne corner which deflected off the woodwork onto the unfortunate Bayer Leverkusen ‘keeper to break the deadlock with just over fifteen minutes to go.

With their own qualification hopes on the line, Finland began to push for an equalizer. This ultimately led to Lukaku being presented with the opportunity to score his third goal of the group stages. De Bruyne played in his former Chelsea teammate who produced a trademark turn after pinning his defender back before firing into the bottom corner with his weaker right foot.

The former Everton boss also handed Eden Hazard, Jérémy Doku, Nacer Chadli, Axel Witsel, Leandro Trossard and Dedryck Boyata starts, which perhaps played a part in the first-half being a somewhat drab affair which lacked quality.

That being said, Doku was the brightest spark of the first 45 minutes with the Rennes winger going closest to opening the scoring after cutting in from the left-hand-side and producing a curling effort which was well stopped by Hrádecký.

Skipper Hazard thought he’d given his side the lead with a shot from 12-yeards-out, but once again a strong hand from the Finnish shot-stopper kept the scores level.

De Bruyne and Lukaku’s telepathic understanding has been clear for all to see throughout the competition thus far, and it appeared that they had linked up to give their side the lead after ramping up the pressure following the interval. Another gilt-edged pass from the PFA Player of the Year found Lukaku who finished with ease, but just before play restarted a VAR check ruled that the Inter Milan striker was marginally offside.

Markku Kanerva opted to replace Rasmus Schüller with Tim Sparv, and for large periods his team looked comfortable with a 0-0 draw seeing their side through in second place. But after creating little, they can have few complaints with the final result.

Whilst Belgium must wait to discover who their next opponents are, Martinez and co will be optimistic that the nation’s golden era can turn their quality into silverware.

For Finland however, qualifying for the competition was a tremendous achievement and one they should be proud of. But it may hurt that they are heading home having come so close to the last 16.

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