Romelu Lukaku: ‘Some people in Belgium want to see me fail’

You need to realise that at a World Cup, you need to play for 90 minutes. The first goal was primordial. “Even though we thought he’d have a good opportunity to be involved in the group phase I think now he’s not got a stronger opportunity”, Martinez said.

We’ve got our top talent on hand from England, the United States, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Australia and Africa – many of whom will be based out in Russian Federation for the tournament – to analyse each and every one of the 64 matches.

Belgium will be expected to win comfortably and tend to be hard to beat in the opening matches of World Cup tournaments. Everyone wants to play against us.

Belgium will be happy with their second half performance and will likely put the first half down to getting acclimatised to the tournament.

“I’m delighted. It was exactly what we expected – there are no easy games at the World Cup”. And when asked if Panama could repeat Iceland’s upset against Argentina – the teams drew 1-1 on Saturday – the Colombian didn’t bother picking the right words when downplaying the Argentine squad. Jaime Penedo in goal is 36, while Blas Perez up front is 37.

Panama coach Hernan Dario Gomez is looking for his side to make their mark.

“Nobody likes losing, but that was a normal result”. “I have to prepare the players mentally”.

Hazard himself said that he had taken a “little kick” in the first half but said it was nothing serious.

They needed a spark from somewhere, and they got it from Mertens in the 47th minute.

Panama could have equalised a few minutes later if goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois had not won his duel at the 54th minute.

But the gulf in class began to tell as Belgium doubled their lead midway through the second half.

Hazard is surrounded by outstanding attacking talents, from Manchester City’s Kevin De Bruyne to Napoli’s Dries Mertens and Manchester United’s Romelu Lukaku.

No matter how many crackers are scored between now and the end, Mertens’ strike will surely be up there with the best of them.

The BBC writes that Lukaku “feels many Belgium supporters do not appreciate him and are unaware of the poverty of his childhood”.

Martinez on Sunday said Hazard was ready to light up a tournament in the same way as Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo did with his stunning hat-trick against Spain on Friday.

“We can’t look at anybody else”.

“Then this one day I came home, and I walked into the kitchen, and I saw my mum at the refrigerator with the box of milk, like normal”.