Belgium beat Tunisia 5-2 to record the highest number of goals scored by a team in the 2018 World Cup yesterday.
There are far biggest tests to come for Belgium, starting with England in Kaliningrad on Thursday, but Roberto Martínez’s players have signalled their intent early on, racking up maximum points from their opening two matches, scoring freely and looking like a team that plans to live up to their billing as one of the World Cup’s favourites.
It was a landmark afternoon for Romelu Lukaku, who created a little bit of history when he registered his third and fourth goals to draw level with Cristiano Ronaldo as the tournament’s joint leading scorer.
Lukaku has now scored more goals in World Cups and European Championships than any other Belgian down the years. He also became the first player to score two goals or more in successive World Cup games since Diego Maradona in 1986.
Lukaku would probably have gone on to score a hat-trick had Martínez not decided that Belgium were comfortable enough with half an hour remaining.
They were already 4-1 up at that stage and the Belgium manager, with an eye on the challenges ahead, gave Lukaku a breather.