This was a classic of tournament football: recklessly open, breathlessly contested and ultimately decided by the enduring ability of one of European football’s greats, the brilliant Kevin De Bruyne.
Belgium’s 32-year-old captain still carries the hopes of a golden generation, now passing into dusk, and he is still capable of some wonderful moments. There were surging runs and sumptuous throughballs, there were feints and shimmies, but ultimately there was a decisive goal from De Bruyne of the usual cussedness. Silky he is, but also single-minded enough to chase down a long clearance from his goalkeeper, shake off the defender and decide the match.
De Bruyne’s Belgium side now have their first win in Group E in which all teams enter the final round of games on Wednesday with three points. The great Belgian side of the past decade may be slipping into history but Jan Vertonghen is still a starter for now, winning his 155th cap in 17 years as an international. Romelu Lukaku is on 116 caps although he had a third goal of this Euros disallowed, this time for an offside that judged him just a thumb’s breadth over the line. De Bruyne was the man who got the critical second.
Of the new guard, Jeremy Doku, De Bruyne’s Manchester City team-mate, was the outstanding player of the first half and made the first goal for Youri Tielemans within two minutes. As the second half opened up, and Romania took greater and greater risks, it was De Bruyne who held his nerve.
With semi-retirement in Saudi Arabia beckoning, De Bruyne retains a range of attributes that can belie his age. He can still surge past an opponent, and his run in the first half in 18 minutes that created a chance for the Seville striker Dodi Lukebakio, was one in which more than one opponent had the ball whisked away from under their nose.
This was De Bruyne’s sixth successive international tournament, and one fleeting reference to the possibility of it being the last, in his Uefa man of the match press conference, prompted a further question about whether that was the case. “I was thinking more there are a lot of young lads coming in and we have players who have been involved in other tournaments,” he said, “which makes me feel I need to support as best I can.
“I need to take responsibility because I have been playing for this team for ten years. I have knowledge to share with them. I haven’t thought about whether it is the end of the road for me. I want Belgium to do well. We have had beautiful moments in the last phases of tournaments. Once I have gone it will be up to someone else, but I don’t like thinking about that.”
This was a ragged game at times, but all the better for it. There are 44 Fifa ranking places between the two sides and Romania, borne aloft by their opening win over Ukraine, were open in midfield. There were some good performances from the likes of Dennis Man and Valentin Mihaila, both part of the Parma team that won promotion to Serie A last season, and the Tottenham defender Radu Dragusin.
Doku twisted the right-back Andrei Ratiu out of position as often as possible and the City winger was the architect of the goal in the second minute. Tielemans had won the ball originally and from there it went to Lukaku and left to Doku. He ignored De Bruyne’s run down the left on the overlap and instead turned inside to Lukaku who took the pass with his back to goal. Tielemans came onto the set to score.
Romania might have crumbled but they saw off a difficult 20 minutes. Belgium are still missing the injured Thomas Meunier and Axel Witsel, the former of which manager Domenico Tedesco said should be fit for Wednesday. Lukebakio started ahead of Arsenal’s Leandro Trossard who came on in the second half.
In spite of how early Belgium broke through, and the confidence that gave them, the Romanians did not concede again in the first half. They were fortunate at times, especially when Lukaku held off Andrei Burca, the Romanian centre-back, in the area, in a classic piece of Lukaku forward play that ended without the finish required.
After Lukaku had a second retrospectively disallowed when De Bruyne speared a ball through the retreating back four, Man should have scored for Romania. The stadium crackled all night. Two noisy sets of fans who never went quiet. It felt like Belgium should have put their opposition away many times – but they took their time doing so.
Belgium’s goalkeeper Koen Casteels hammered a kick down the centre and no yellow shirt got boot or head upon it. De Bruyne gained a yard on Dragusin which was space enough for him to score the second.Â