In their opening match of Euro 2024 in Frankfurt, Slovakia defeated Belgium, who were once again plagued by tournament curses. Two goals scored by Romelu Lukaku were disallowed by VAR.

Ivan Schranz scored a close-range goal for Slovakia in the seventh minute, thanks in part to Jeremy Doku’s error.

In the midst of their fury, the Belgians saw two goals disallowed: one for Lukaku due to offside, and the other for Lois Openda due to a handball.

Within the first seven minutes in Frаnkfurt, Dоku’s bооts demоnstrаted Belgium’s extrаоrdinаry tаlent fоr leаving spectаtоrs bоth аmаzed аnd devаstаted.In the nick of time, the Manchester City winger—who was positioned on the opposite side of the field from his regular position for his club—wonderfully sprinted away from two challenges, dove out of a third, and set up an opportunity that neither Kevin De Bruyne nor Romelu Lukaku could convert.

Then the comical descended from the lofty. Doku was immediately pressured by Robert Bozenik and Lukas Haraslin after receiving the ball from Timothy Castagne.Doku considered passing the ball to Wout Faes as a solution; however, it was Schranz who swooped in, found Juraj Kucka, and was there to put the rebound in after Koen Casteels had saved Kucka’s effort, thus it was comedy rather than Faes who grabbed control.

While Belgium’s appeals remained unanswered, they were almost given a goal back when Leandro Trossard was sent in by Martin Dubravka, but he could only shoot wide.

Belgium seemed to be starting to feel the effects of the specter of previous tournaments looming over them.

At one end, the outstanding Haraslin had a great chance to score, but Casteels made a fantastic save to keep the ball out of the net. On the other end, Lukaku messed up his lines with a heavy touch.Afterwards, Lukaku had three opportunities to score early in the second half, but he was denied on three separate occasions: by Dubravka, by VAR following a superb header from Amadou Onana, and finally by the side netting. As soon as substitute Johan Bakayoko’s close-range shot was brilliantly cleared off the line by David Hancko, nothing could be salvaged.

On the verge of giving in to their worst fears, Belgium watched as De Bruyne dove deeper into the ball chase, all the while desperately trying to inspire his colleagues, who were quickly running out of ideas.

Then, as a Belgian fan joined in the celebrations, Lukaku thought he’d equalized with a close-range shot, but VAR stepped in again following Openda’s handball.

Neither the day nor the tournament went Belgium’s way.