Belgium head coach Rudi Garcia urges caution despite impressive victory over Croatia

Belgium's leading goalscorer scored his 90th international goal in the 2-0 victory, as both nations continued their World Cup preparations. It marked his return to the national team after a 12-month absence, seemingly putting behind him a difficult season in which he played less than an hour of football for Napoli.

“This is massive for him. He lives for goals. So him scoring is something we are really pleased about,” said head coach Rudi Garcia.

“You could also see how his teammates reacted. They all went over to celebrate with him, and he deserves it.

“Our top scorer, our super top scorer, has found the net again, and that is fantastic. That goal is good for his confidence. Still, we must remain cautious. It can be dangerous to hurry things. We need to take him along step by step,” the coach told the press.

Lukaku has been dealing with a hamstring injury and last featured in early March.

“However, he demonstrated once again that he is further ahead than we expected. With long injury layoffs, it often happens that you can start very well and then face a setback later on,” Garcia cautioned.

Belgium captain Youri Tielemans capitalised on a defensive mistake to put Belgium ahead against the run of play, but the visitors were much stronger in the second half, with Lukaku's stoppage-time goal adding gloss to the victory.

“I think it was a tight and fiercely contested game,” added experienced midfielder Kevin De Bruyne.

“We tried a few things, perhaps not necessarily with the intention of fully implementing everything for the World Cup. As a team, we were quite compact and did not concede much. Here and there, we are still looking for a few things, and there are areas where we can improve.”

“This is a good start, but we need to remain calm. So much can still change. There will also be moments during the World Cup when things get harder. This team wants to approach it positively,” De Bruyne said.

Belgium have a second friendly international against Tunisia in Brussels on Saturday before travelling to the United States, where they face Egypt in their opening Group G fixture in Seattle on June 15.