Lukaku gave Belgium an early lead here, then shouted “Chris, Chris, stay strong—I love you” into a pitchside camera during the celebration for his opening goal.
Belgium’s Romelu Lukaku celebrates his goal against Russia on Saturday. Pic/Getty Images
Belgium striker Romelu Lukaku sent a message of support to his stricken Inter Milan teammate Christian Eriksen after scoring, as his double helped the Red Devils open their Euro campaign with a 3-0 win over Russia on Saturday.
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Lukaku gave Belgium an early lead here, then shouted “Chris, Chris, stay strong—I love you” into a pitchside camera during the celebration for his opening goal.
Eriksen is recovering in hospital in Copenhagen after collapsing on the pitch during extraordinary scenes which overshadowed Denmark’s 1-0 home defeat by Finland in Saturday’s earlier Group B game.
‘Difficult to play’
“I am really happy with the win, but it was hard for me to play because my thoughts were with Christian Eriksen,” said Lukaku, who revealed he cried tears of concern before kick-off for his Inter Milan teammate.
Belgium coach Roberto Martinez admitted other members of his squad were also affected after seeing Eriksen suddenly slump to the turf during the Denmark-Finland game. “We were watching the game live and five minutes after Christian collapsed, we went into a team meeting. As you can imagine, the last thing we wanted to do was talk about football,” said Martinez.
‘Tough moment’
“There were a lot of tears from players who have shared dressing rooms and big moments with Christian. All our thoughts go to him and his family, but also to the Danish team, as that was a really tough moment.” Substitute Thomas Meunier doubled Belgium’s lead on 34 minutes before Lukaku put the result beyond doubt with a late second goal.
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