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Wednesday, June 16
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Jun 12, 2021 at 8pm UK
BelgiumBelgium
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RussiaRussia
Lukaku (10', 88'), Meunier (34')
FT(HT: 2-0)

Roberto Martinez hails "very pleasing" Belgium win over Russia

:Headline: Roberto Martinez hails 'very pleasing' Belgium win over Russia:
One of the favourites for the tournament cruised to a routine triumph over Russia in their opening match.
Sports Mole

Roberto Martinez believes Belgium's comfortable 3-0 victory over Russia in their Group B opener will allow them to grow into Euro 2020.

A brace from Romelu Lukaku helped the number one ranked team in the world make a winning start to the tournament in St Petersburg.

Substitute Thomas Meunier also struck in the first half to cap a good evening for the Red Devils, who were without the injured Kevin De Bruyne while captain Eden Hazard was only introduced for the final 18 minutes.

"The performance is very pleasing. It is never easy to start a tournament of this magnitude and we looked a team very concentrated for 90 minutes," Martinez said.

"We kept a clean sheet in a very good way and the win will allow us to grow into the tournament."

It was not all good for Belgium, with Martinez admitting the outlook for Leicester defender Timothy Castagne was "really bad" after he suffered a double fracture to his eye socket in a nasty clash of heads with Daler Kuzyaev.

Elsewhere in Group B, Denmark's match with Finland in Copenhagen was suspended for 90 minutes after Christian Eriksen collapsed at the end of the first half and required lengthy medical treatment on the pitch.

The Inter Milan playmaker required compressions to be performed on his chest, but was awake as he left on a stretcher and was reported to be stable in hospital by the Danish Football Association.

Lukaku dedicated his first goal to club colleague Eriksen and Martinez said it was an emotional dressing room.

He added: "We were watching it live and then it was probably in the next five minutes we were going into our team meeting and you can imagine the last thing we wanted to speak was about football.

"It was a real shock, real sadness and there were tears. We have a lot of team-mates in our dressing room that have shared big moments with Christian.

"Our wishes from the national team and everyone in Belgium is to Christian, his family, and the whole Danish team because that was a really tough moment in St Petersburg so I can only imagine how difficult it was in Copenhagen."

Russian boss Stanislav Cherchesov was disappointed at the reaction of his players to Lukaku's 10th-minute opener and also repeatedly dodged questions about the Belgian team being booed when they took the knee before kick-off.

He said: "We started the game as we were planning to. We played in a very compact way and the first goal affected the game and the morale of our team, which I didn't like.

"We had to keep going. We made changes in the second half and played in a more compact way but we couldn't create as many moments as we would have liked."

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TeamPWDLFAGDPTS
CManchester CityMan City38275683325186
2Manchester UnitedMan Utd382111673442974
3Liverpool38209968422669
4Chelsea381910958362267
5Leicester CityLeicester382061268501866
6West Ham UnitedWest Ham381981162471565
7Tottenham HotspurSpurs381881268452362
8Arsenal381871355391661
9Leeds UnitedLeeds38185156254859
10Everton38178134748-159
11Aston Villa38167155546955
12Newcastle UnitedNewcastle38129174662-1645
13Wolverhampton WanderersWolves38129173652-1645
14Crystal Palace38128184166-2544
15Southampton38127194768-2143
16Brighton & Hove AlbionBrighton38914154046-641
17Burnley38109193355-2239
RFulham38513202753-2628
RWest Bromwich AlbionWest Brom38511223576-4126
RSheffield UnitedSheff Utd3872292063-4323
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Premier League Table
TeamPWDLFAGDPTS
CManchester CityMan City38275683325186
2Manchester UnitedMan Utd382111673442974
3Liverpool38209968422669
4Chelsea381910958362267
5Leicester CityLeicester382061268501866
6West Ham UnitedWest Ham381981162471565
7Tottenham HotspurSpurs381881268452362
8Arsenal381871355391661
9Leeds UnitedLeeds38185156254859
10Everton38178134748-159
11Aston Villa38167155546955
12Newcastle UnitedNewcastle38129174662-1645
13Wolverhampton WanderersWolves38129173652-1645
14Crystal Palace38128184166-2544
15Southampton38127194768-2143
16Brighton & Hove AlbionBrighton38914154046-641
17Burnley38109193355-2239
RFulham38513202753-2628
RWest Bromwich AlbionWest Brom38511223576-4126
RSheffield UnitedSheff Utd3872292063-4323
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