International friendly: Kevin De Bruyne and Romelu Lukaku on target as Belgium edge out Germany in five-goal thriller
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Updated 29/03/2023 at 09:44 GMT
Domenico Tedesco made it two wins from two games as Belgium head coach with a thrilling victory against Germany in a friendly match in Cologne. A goal each from Yannick Carrasco, Romelu Lukaku and Kevin De Bruyne sealed an impressive win, while Niclas Fullkrug and Serge Gnabry were on target for Germany. It caps a fine five days for Tedesco’s side after a 3-0 win over Sweden.
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Belgium edged out a five-goal thriller to beat Germany 3-2 in Cologne to make it two wins from Domenico Tedesco's first two games in charge.
It caps a fine five days for Tedesco’s side after opening their Euro 2024 qualifying campaign with a 3-0 win away in Sweden on Friday.
However, the result means it has been a March of mixed fortunes for Hansi Flick’s side, who failed to build on a 2-0 friendly victory over Peru in Mainz on Saturday.
The visitors broke the deadlock in the sixth minute thanks to Yannick Carrasco, who showed brilliant composure inside the box to rifle home a finish past Marc-Andre ter Stegen following some excellent link-up play involving Romelu Lukaku and Kevin De Bruyne.
Their lead was doubled three minutes later through Lukaku, who latched onto De Bruyne’s perfectly-weighted pass and clinically dispatched his effort beyond the German shot-stopper.
Dodi Lukebakio was inches away from scoring an outstanding individual third goal after reacting to Amadou Onana’s headed clearance and running almost the full length of the pitch, only to agonisingly fire his resulting strike wide of the far post.
But it was Flick’s team that responded just before the break when Niclas Fullkrug’s header was handled by Lukaku in the box, and referee Willy Delajod pointed to the spot.
Fullkrug stepped up and successfully halved the deficit with his subsequent penalty to net a sixth international goal in as many senior caps.
It looked like momentum had shifted in the hosts favour, as Timo Werner thought he had wiped out Belgium’s lead with a tidy finish, only to be denied by the assistant referee’s flag.
De Bruyne added his name to the scoresheet which his superb performance deserved, and he slotted the ball past Ter Stergen after being teed up by Leandro Trossard at the end of a sublime counter-attack.
Serge Gnabry halved the arrears once again by reacting quickest to Kevin Schade’s cutback, but the Red Devils held on to secure a memorable win.
Belgium will now turn their attention back to the European qualifiers with fixtures against Austria and Estonia on June 17 and 20 respectively.
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