Belgium would record a fairly comfortable 2-0 victory over Romania in their Euro 2024 group fixture last night, although there has been plenty of debate about the decision to disallow one of their goals during the game.
Coming off a shock 1-0 loss to Slovakia in their tournament opener, there was quite a bit of pressure on the Belgians heading into this one. They would get off to a dream start in the match, with Youri Tielemans opening the scoring inside the first two minutes.
That put Belgium in a strong position, although they would have to wait quite a while before they would add a second. They thought they had done so via Romelu Lukaku just after the hour mark, only for the strike to be disallowed for offside.
🇧🇪 1-0 🇷🇴
Not for the first time at #Euro2024, Romelu Lukaku has had a goal ruled out for offside #BELROU
📺 Watch @rte2 & @rteplayer: https://t.co/XnOP6grnB7 pic.twitter.com/hh53Km90c3— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) June 22, 2024
It was certainly a tight call.
LUKAKU’S KNEE CAP WAS OFFSIDE😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/4S4u3JXW0a
— The 44 ⚽️ (@The_Forty_Four) June 22, 2024
Thankfully for Belgium, this decision would have little impact on the result. They would score a second through Kevin De Bruyne soon after, securing their first win of Euro 2024.
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Ian Wright had passionate response to disallowed Romelu Lukaku Goal
While the decision to disallow Romelu Lukaku's goal was technically correct, some are asking if decisions such as this one are negatively impacting the sport as a whole.
Speaking on ITV, Ian Wright gave a passionate response when asked about whether he agreed that the goal should have been chalked off.
It's something as a striker that I'm never going to be able to accept, that kind of offside. Especially when forwards are trying to bend runs and we're talking about an advantage.
I can't understand that when a defender and forward are facing the same way, and you're talking about millimetres, that the forward has an advantage there. You're talking about offside by a millimetre. Just like you can be onside by a millimetre, you can be offside.
People are saying 'offside is offside'. I'm never going to be able to accept it.
It's difficult to argue with that.
The automated offside system used by UEFA at Euro 2024 is a welcome addition, shortening the time it takes to come to such decisions. However, it can lead to incidents such as this one.
While the solution to this debate is not an obvious one, it seems very few football fans are in favour of decisions such as the one we saw in this game.
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