Romelu Lukaku sent a strong message about his match sharpness on Saturday, as he scored a hattrick for Belgium in their 3-0 dismissal of Sweden in their opening European qualifiers game at the Friends Arena, Sweden.
Lukaku, who had questions around his form coming into the game, following an underwhelming return to Serie A team Inter Milan, quickly pacified those murmurs with a stand out performance in Saturday.
The striker opened the scoring in the 35th minute, before adding his brace in nine minutes later to double Belgium’s lead.
In a game, for which its lead-up was surrounded by the return of veteran Sweden striker Zlatan Ibrahimović, Lukaku completed the upstage of his former inter-teammate with a third goal eight minutes from time.
The on-loan Chelsea talisman added his and Belgium’s third goal of the game to seal a winning start to their Euro qualification campaign.
Lukaku who’s Belgium’s record goal sorcerer, now moves his tally to 77 in 105 appearances.
The result marks a perfect start for new team manager Domenico Tedesco who took over the reins at the 2018 World Cup semi-finalists following the resignation of Robert Martinez after Belgium’s shock first-round exit at last year’s tournament
Belgium now moves to second in Group F behind Austria with three points each after one game.
