Croatia 0-0 Belgium: Three Things We Learned

On another dramatic day of World Cup action, we saw a parade of teams make their way through to the round of 16 – with a whole load exiting the tournament, also. The most ‘star-studded’ encounter was set to be Croatia vs Belgium but in the end, the game ended without any goals as both sides shared the spoils.

Now, we’re going to take a look at some of the big takeaways from the fixture.

VAR needs work

It may only be a small point in the mind of some but in the first half, Croatia were awarded a clear penalty that was ruled out due to an offside in the build-up. The problem, as is so often the case, was that it wasn’t at all clear what was happening or why the referee was required to go over to the monitor. It was a marginal offside, too, and it could’ve given the Croats what they needed to top the group.

Lukaku struggles

Romelu Lukaku came on in the second half with the hope of turning things around for the Red Devils – but instead, he cost them the game. He had two or three golden opportunities to score and give Belgium the lead, but he simply wasn’t able to take them. His instincts were all off and even though it was a team effort to mess this up, Lukaku certainly needs to take his share of the blame.

The golden generation ends

For over a decade now, there’s been a whole lot of talk about the golden generation of the Belgian national team. For one reason or another, they haven’ been able to get going in major international tournaments with the 2018 World Cup being the closest they’ve come to silverware. Now, with Roberto Martinez gone and their top players seemingly feuding, nobody knows what will come next.