Belgium stunned by Slovakia 1-0 with VAR denying Lukaku twice
Two Romelu Lukaku goals were ruled out by video review and Belgium fell to a stunning 1‐0 loss to Slovakia in wild Group D at the European Championship on Monday.
Francesco Calzona's side are 45 spots below third‐placed Belgium in FIFA's world rank‐ ings.
But they made a mockery of the supposed quality gap be‐ tween the teams with a coura‐ geous performance in Frankfurt.
Slovakia struck with a sev‐ enth‐minute goal by forward Ivan Schranz then survived a string of misses by Belgium record scorer Lukaku, who had two second‐half goals over‐ turned, and all that playmaker Kevin De Bruyne could help cre‐ ate.
Slovakia's deserved win also was preserved by defender Dávid Hancko's brave goal‐line block that left him sprawled in the goal net with a face injury inflicted by a teammate's knee.
That came in the 62nd minute, from substitute Johan Bakayoko's close‐range shot, just seven minutes after Lukaku's first ' goal' was over‐ turned when a video review spotted an offside.
The second VAR intervention in the 86th disallowed Lukaku's powerful shot because of a handball by Loïs Openda before his decisive pass.
Lukaku set a competition record of 14 goals in a qualifying group last year, yet somehow failed to score in a wasteful first half including twice before Slovakia led.
The drama in Frankfurt came hours after Romania up‐ ended predictions by outclassing Ukraine 3‐0 in Munich.
Belgium fell to a first loss in 15 games under coach Domenico Tedesco and faces Romania in the Saturday evening game in Cologne.
Slovakia has more than one day less to prepare for fac‐ ing Ukraine in Duesseldorf on Friday.