Ian Fleming, the man who created James Bond, once said: “Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action.” And no, this is not an insinuation that Romelu Lukaku’s goals were disallowed on purpose. The rules are clear and have to be obeyed. But the amount of the Belgian’s bad luck is beyond belief. As if he had been jinxed by some mrogi.On the other hand, we have to talk about the “elephant in the room” as well. It’s not all up to Lukaku, and it can’t be all mrogi’s fault. Perhaps Romelu’s goals were not disallowed intentionally, but football we know is being ruined. So far, as many as 12 goals have been disallowed at the EURO 2024. Some situations were obvious, while some left people thinking, are the referees at the same time forensic scientists, and are we watching some CSI TV series instead of the most important secondary thing in the world?Lukaku with ANOTHER offside goal this tournament!Unlucky 💔 pic.twitter.com/cyjjgHB8Bo— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) June 22, 2024 The Dutchmen felt it firsthand two days ago when Denzel Dumfries allegedly distracted Mike Maignan, and then Lukaku was, as it seemed, less than a millimetre offside. Things like these slowly but surely start getting on people’s nerves. More and more people agree that football stopped being football and became something of a science. One of them is Tottenham’s boss, Ange Postecoglou.”Don’t get me started! My frustration is that we’ve turned football into forensics now, millimetres. I think if that goal had stood without offside technology, nobody would have said anything. When is contact made with the ball? We’ve seen the end product of that but not when the pass was played. It’s changed the game materially. I’m not a fan but it is there and it is used. The only positive I see is that they’re doing it quickly,” said Ange annoyed, speaking to ITV Sport.Openda’s handball is where we should draw the line. No, not that lineTalking to the same TV station, Arsenal legend Ian Wright agreed with the Australian.”As a striker, I’m never going to be able to accept that kind of offside, especially when forwards are trying to bend runs and we’re talking about an advantage. I can’t understand that when a defender and a forward are facing the same way, and you’re talking about millimetres, that the forward has got an advantage there. This to me… people say it’s offside. I cannot accept that as offside,” stated Wright.🤦 Romelu Lukaku has had more goals disallowed than any player has scored at Euro 2024… pic.twitter.com/JgB7aXJQE1— Football Insider (@footyinsider247) June 23, 2024 In total, the Belgian was (un)justifiably deprived of three goals – two against Slovakia and one last night against Romania. Just think that he would have been the tournament’s leading scorer at the moment. This way, he couldn’t even make it to the list. Furthermore, 28% of all the goals that VAR has disallowed at continental tournaments are Lukaku’s?!28% (4 out of 14) of disallowed goals using VAR in the history of Euros were scored by Lukaku. No other player had more than one disallowed goal.#EURO2024— MisterChip (English) (@MisterChiping) June 22, 2024 Looking at his stats, one would think only goals are missing. Namely, he is second in goal attempts (8) and first in shots on target (5). He touched the ball in the opponents’ box 18 times, and only his teammate Jérémy Doku has more (23). Considering this, we have to chalk it up to bad luck, the bad rules, or the bad officiating, but one thing is certain—it’s not all Lukaku’s fault.##NAJAVA_MECA_8173679##
