MARTINEZ: LUKAKU FULLY FIT
Red Devils star ready to play against Japan
STRIKER Romelu Lukaku is fully fit after injuring an ankle in last weekend’s win over Tunisia and should be available for Belgium’s second-round match against Japan, coach Roberto Martinez said on Friday.
“Lukaku is fully fit,” he told reporters a day after resting the Manchester United target man and eight other first-choice players but still claiming a 1-0 win over England.
That victory has arguably handed Belgium the harder half of the draw than England but Martinez refused to be drawn on the potential difficulties of facing former champions Brazil in the quarter-final. He said beating an understrength England with his reserve team had filled the squad with confidence.
It also gave Martinez a chance to try out two key defenders who had been out injured for several weeks.
Martinez said Thomas Vermaelen was still suffering poor vision due to a black eye sustained in a clash on Thursday but would be back to full fitness before tomorrow’s game.
The coach said Vincent Kompany, who played the last 20 minutes, was also now fit, though it was not yet clear if he was sufficiently match-sharp to start against Japan.
Belgium scored nine goals in their three World Cup group games, more than any other country, and forward Dries Mertens said yesterday he was motivated by more than just winning the trophy.
Mertens, scorer of an outrageous volley against Panama that opened Belgium's account in Russia, joked that friends back home were counting on him to help the team hit a target of 16 goals to make good on a retailer's special World Cup promotion.
Asked by reporters at their training camp near Moscow about Belgium's free-scoring run, the Napoli player noted that a Belgian electrical chain was offering to reimburse people who bought a TV for the World Cup -if the team score more than 15.
“My friends bought the television. So I’m thinking about that. So I want to score a lot of goals to give a free television to my friends,” he declared ahead of Belgium's last 16 clash with Japan on Monday.