Three Belgium goals spoil Russians start at Euros

Euro 2020 Group B Matchday 1
Belgium 3-0 Russia
Saturday 12 June, St. Petersburg Stadium

Goals: Belgium - Lukaku (10, 88), Meunier (34) 

The Russians kicked off their Euro 2020 campaign with the loss against Belgium on the native field in St. Petersburg. After ten minutes Romelu Lukaku caught the ball from Andrey Semenov and brought the lead to the Red Devils, and later Thomas Meunier, who came as a substitute to Timothy Castagne, scored the second one on the rebound. Lukaku increased the score at the end of the second half and became the first player to score a double in the current tournament.

Before the half-time two Russian players were replaced due to injuries, they were Daler Kuzyaev and Yury Zhirkov.

In the starting line-up eight Russians made their debut at the European Championships: Anton Shunin, Mario Fernandes, Andrey Semenov, Georgy Dzhikiya, Magomed Ozdoev, Dmitry Barinov, Roman Zobnin and Daler Kuzyaev. The five substitutes also played at Euro for the first time: Denis Cheryshev, Vyacheslav Karavaev, Igor Diveev, Maksim Mukhin and Aleksey Miranchuk.

After the first matchday Belgium and Finland are the top two of the group B with three points, while Denmark and Russian are at the bottom of the standings.

Next Euro 2020 fixtures: Wednesday 16 June - Finland vs Russia; Thursday 17 June - Denmark vs Belgium