Belgium survive nervy end and reach last 16 after Ukraine stalemate

Ruslan Malinovskyi of Ukraine competes for a header with Orel Mangala of Belgium in their goalless draw. Photograph: Álex Caparrós/Uefa/Getty Images

In the end, Ukraine just didn’t have the energy or the guile. They will feel unfortunate to have been eliminated from the Euros having picked up four points, the same as every other side in the group, more than Denmark who qualified in second in England’s group as well as various third-placed teams, but in the final minutes, when it became apparent that they would need a goal after all, they had nothing.

There are bigger issues at stake, of course, as indicated by the way Belgium’s fans applauded the Ukrainian anthem. In every interview, every press conference, their players have talked about waiting for news from home, of knowing friends and relatives huddling round a single radio or phone to follow games, of the anguish of those back home. If their prime job was to remind the world of the war they are fighting, they have done it admirably.

Reaching the knockouts, though, was always going to be difficult once they’d lost their opening game 3-0 to Romania. There were some set plays late on that caused Belgium the odd anxious moment, one close-range Artem Dovbyk shot from a throw-in that Moen Casteels blocked well, and one ferocious Ruslan Malinovskyi shot that thudded into the midriff of Youri Tielemans, but never anything sustained.

Not that Belgium, who went through in second, were a huge amount better. In their away kit inspired by Tintin, they were extremely reliant on their most Tintin-like player, Kevin De Bruyne. Even Tintin, though, has his supporting cast, his Captain Haddock, his Snowy, his Thompson Twins. A few dribbles from Jérémy Doku aside, De Bruyne felt like he had to do it alone.

But every Belgium match these days eventually comes down to one major

issue: the lucklessness of Lukaku. What happened to him? Did he do a Mephistophelean deal one day when he was very young, that he would grow up to have the physique of Didier Drogba, the capacity to hold the ball up of Niall Quinn, the movement of Thomas Müller, but that one day, long after he’d become his country’s top-scorer (if he gets eight more goals, which admittedly could take a while at present rates, he’ll have as many as Belgium’s second-, third- and fourth-top scorers combined) he would suddenly lose the ability to score?

His performance against Croatia at the World Cup was mesmerising. At first you laughed because you thought it couldn’t go on, and then it all became a bit uncomfortable. What had he done to anger the gods that they would repay him like this, by making him miss over and over and over again?. Some efforts went close. Some were saved. Some were ruled out. Self-belief began to ebb; it was like watching the trials of Job condensed into 90 minutes in the Qatari desert.

Surely, whatever he had done, the debt had been repaid. But histribulations have gone on. Three times he’s put the ball in the net at this tournament; none of them have counted. First there was a distinct offside. Then there was a very modern handball in the build-up by Loïs Openda. Then there was a hair’s-breadth offside after he had taken a chance against Romania adroitly.

Little wonder if he had begun to doubt himself. Who wouldn’t? Seven

minutes in, De Bruyne slipped him through with a characteristically deft through-ball. Lukaku ran on. He was clear. He was onside. It was a glorious link-up. He set himself to strike a reverse shot back across Anatoliy Trubin and … almost missed the ball altogether, scuffing it softy to the keeper.

Doku was just too far head of him, then having crafted a reasonable opportunity in the right side of the box, he sidefooted his shot so Trubin could save comfortably. That was his seventh shot on target of the tournament, more than anybody else, and yet somehow he still didn’t have a goal.

The general caginess perhaps was the result of the tightness of the group; if either Slovakia or Romania won in Frankfurt, a draw in this game would have been enough to carry both sides through. That perhaps explains Serhiy Rebrov’s selection as he opted for a back three and two centre-forwards with Andriy Yaremchuk, who came off the bench to score a lovely goal against Slovakia, picked alongside Dovbyk.

The problem was they lacked creativity, their only real opportunity of the first half coming two minutes before the break as Mykola Shaporenko, with a glorious shooting opportunity, seemed to lose his nerve, attempting a pass to Dovbyk that was intercepted.

But the longer it went on after Romania had equalised against Slovakia, the more urgent it became for Ukraine to try to score. But they had no other gear to go to and, in the end, their elimination felt anti-climactic. As they were reduced to hoping for a goal in Frankfurt it all seemed a little tepid.