Belgium coach Romelu Lukaku

 

Marc Wilmots praised Romelu Lukaku's performance after his two goals helped Belgium to a 3-0 victory against the Republic of Ireland. Lukaku endured a torrid time in his side's opening defeat to Italy but bounced back to silence the critics, scoring twice in the second-half, either side of Alex Witsel's 61st minute header to help secure Belgium's first win of Euro 2016.

He said "With Romelu Lukaku we wanted to give somebody some confidence, he played a great game. When he missed one opportunity against Italy, people were saying it's all different. I just needed to make sure I trusted him. He did what I expected today. I prefer he runs hard for 70 minutes and then I can make a substitution."
 

Manchester City forward Kevin De Bruyne's place in the Belgium starting line-up was also under threat following his display against Italy. De Bruyne himself did nothing to discourage suggestions he would be replaced for their second Group E match after his poor performance, but Wilmots insisted he was always going to pick the Premier League pair.
 

Wilmots told reporters "I bluffed but the players were aware of it. Our line-up was the right line-up today. We're not yet qualified we have a difficult game to play against Sweden and it's like a final. Anything could happen."