Romelu Lukaku scores four goals in 20 minutes for Belgium against Azerbaijan

Against the odds and narratives, Romelu Lukaku has rediscovered his scoring touch this season, and his latest exploits have seen him score a rather impressive four goals in the span of just 20 minutes last night against poor old Azerbaijan in Group F of Euro 2024 qualifying. (And no, Azerbaijan are not even the worst team in that group — that distinction belongs to Estonia who have one point from seven games with 22 conceded. Ouch.)

In fairness, Lukaku never really lost the goalscoring habit for his national team (83 in 113) — World Cup woes and club form notwithstanding — and these four goals give him 14 in Euro 2024 qualifying alone, four more more than the next leading goalscorer for any nation. There is no Golden Boot for qualifying but Lukaku would have won it several times over.

Hopefully Big Rom can keep things going for the rest of the season as well. AS Roma seem to be lining up a deal to make his move permanent, allowing us to close the book on this episode once and for all.

In other international action, Djordje Petrović wasan unused sub for Serbia, while from the day before, Nicolas Jackson played about 30 minutes in Senegal’s 4-0 win over South Sudan, and Noni Madueke played the full-90 for England U21 in their 3-0 win over Serbia.

Meanwhile, Axel Disasi was an unused sub for France in their Euro qualifying-record 14-0 (fourteen!) over 10-man Gibraltar. Nine (9!) of the sixteen players used by France got on the scoresheet.