{"id":18997,"date":"2026-06-04T06:13:24","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T06:13:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/18997\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T06:13:24","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T06:13:24","slug":"new-age-lukaku-makes-belgium-return-with-ideal-goal-in-win-over-croatia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/18997\/","title":{"rendered":"New Age | Lukaku makes Belgium return with \u2018ideal\u2019 goal in win over Croatia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                                              &#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n                             <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"igm-fluid lazy_bk\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/d27ff858a4aae075c562b9a49abbaed3.jpg\" alt=\"Image description\"\/>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n                             Belgium forward Romelu Lukaku celebrates after scoring a goal during the international friendly match against Croatia at the Rujevica Stadium in Rijeka on Tuesday. |  AFP photo                             &#13;<\/p>\n<p>Belgium captain Youri Tielemans said on Tuesday Napoli forward Romelu Lukaku scoring on his first international appearance in more than a year in a 2-0 World Cup friendly win over Croatia was \u2018ideal\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>Lukaku found the net in the 96th minute in Rijeka having been missing since September 2025 due to injury in the Red Devils\u2019 penultimate match before their tournament opener against Egypt on June 15.<\/p>\n<p>The 33-year-old has played just 64 minutes for his club this season due to a hip niggle.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018This is ideal for Romelu, but also ideal for the team,\u2019 Belgium captain Youri Tielemans told VTM.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018We know how important he is to the group.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018He is sharp and mentally everything is fine too.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018We are going to need him very badly,\u2019 Aston Villa midfielder Tielemans added.<\/p>\n<p>Croatia, World Cup semi-finalists in 2022, and a strong side including captain Luka Modric wearing a mask due to injury, end their own World Cup preparations by hosting Slovenia on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>They begin their World Cup campaign against England on June 17.<\/p>\n<p>On the Adriatic coast, Lukaku was named on the bench with coach Rudi Garcia starting Atalanta midfielder Charles De Ketelaere in the attacking role.<\/p>\n<p>Garcia\u2019s side led 1-0 at the break thanks to an effort from Tielemans after 38 minutes.<\/p>\n<p>A shot from Modric just before the interval was Croatia\u2019s biggest chance of the first half before Osasuna striker Ante Budimir hit the bar near the hour mark.<\/p>\n<p>Belgium doubled their lead in injury time as Lukaku claimed his 90th international goal before they host Tunisia on Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#13; &#13; &#13; &#13; Belgium forward Romelu Lukaku celebrates after scoring a goal during the international friendly match&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18998,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[10472,10471,10469,10466,10468,7,10465,10470,10467,10463,10464],"class_list":["post-18997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-belgium","tag-bangla-online-news","tag-bangladesh-latest-news","tag-bangladesh-news","tag-bangladesh-newspaper","tag-bangladeshi-newspapers","tag-belgium","tag-daily-new-age","tag-latest-bangladesh-news","tag-most-popular-outspoken-english-daily-newpaper-in-bangladesh","tag-new-age","tag-the-new-age"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@be\/116690367657003095","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18997\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}