2022 World Cup Top Goalscorer Odds: Romelu Lukaku to rack up the goals for Belgium in the group stage
Belgium’s all-time leading goalscorer Romelu Lukaku will be the Red Devils' main man going into the 2022 World Cup and will be looking to widen the gap at the top of the country's goalscoring chart.
Lukaku has established himself as a Belgian legend. In 97 games for his country, he has scored 68 goals, working out at a rate of 0.67 goals per game. There is no one even close to being as prolific as him in the Belgium squad e.g. as highlighted below, he has almost double the goals scored by Eden Hazard back in second place.
Belgium's top scorers
- Romelu Lukaku: 68 goals
- Eden Hazard: 33 goals
- Paul Van Himst: 30 goals
- Bernard Voorhoof: 30 goals
- Marc Wilmots: 29 goals
Lukaku has had a quiet start to the season at Inter Milan. The forward pushed for a move from Chelsea after he made it clear midway through last season that he wanted a return to the Serie A and that he missed Inter Milan. Since his return to the Serie A he has netted two goals and one assist in the three games he has played. He’s only managed 234 minutes this season due to multiple hamstring injuries and an ankle injury - in the one game he has played for Belgium he managed 27 minutes.
Obviously coming into a major tournament with a lack of playing time and a lack of goals is always concerning but Lukaku has never looked out of sorts for the Belgian side. On top of that, if you convert his goals to goals per minute, he’s still averaging a goal every 117 minutes - not bad at all. He came on for Inter Milan against Plzen with seven minutes to go and found himself with a few chances, one of which found the back of the net.
It’s no secret that Lukaku is one of the most prolific goalscorers we’ve seen in the last few years but people have often criticised his contribution to big games, especially in the Premier League. In 94 games against the big six, Romelu Lukaku only managed 21 goals, a pretty frustrating statistic given how good his general goalscoring record is for club and country.
For the Belgian national team, as prolific as he is, it seems to be a similar trend. At Euro 2020, he failed to find the back of the net against Portugal and Denmark, but scored against the ‘lesser’ teams such as Finland and Russia. It was the exact same at the 2018 World Cup where he scored a brace against both Panama and Tunisia, and then failed to score for the rest of the tournament against Japan, Brazil, France, and England. Again, it truly is a damning statistic when you take a look at his general goalscoring record so you really can understand it when people call him a flat-track bully.
However, if he can get a few goals against some of the lower-ranked teams, he definitely is in with a shout in the World Cup Top Goalscorer Odds. He has the potential to thrive in the Group Stages against the countries listed below...
- Croatia
- Canada
- Morocco
These are three teams that you would certainly fancy Lukaku to score against, especially considering he will be on penalty duty. Providing he is fully fit for the World Cup and ready to go, he will be starting every game for Belgium where possible and if he is to start every group game, you’d fancy him to start racking up his goalscoring tally early.
Belgium come in as the 8/13 favourites to win Group A and it’s difficult to see where they are going to drop points. Canada and Morocco should be no problem at all for the World No.2 ranked international side, and whilst Croatia are more than capable of an upset they are not quite on the level of Belgium. With Belgium the big favourites for the group, you’d definitely fancy Lukaku to be scoring against these lower-ranked sides. If he can continue his trend of getting a brace or even a hat trick against these sides, it’ll throw him right into the mix for the Golden Boot race.
One huge bonus for Lukaku is playing in front of Kevin de Bruyne. Man City’s maestro has been on fire the past few seasons and with his start to this season linking up with Erling Haaland, Belgium fans will be hoping that Lukaku and De Bruyne can prove to be as fruitful as the Man City duo. In 93 games for Belgium De Bruyne has 46 assists. Pairing him up with any deadly striker is a recipe for success and with the midfielder already registering 11 assists this season, expect him to find that classic KDB inch-perfect pass to set Romelu Lukaku up for one of the easiest goals of his career.
Lukaku actually comes in as a decent outsider at 20/1 for the World Cup Golden Boot behind Kane, Mbappe, Benzema, Messi, Neymar, and Ronaldo. 20/1 could prove to be some really good value given the group stage and Lukaku’s record against lower-ranked teams and considering his overall scoring record for Belgium. Expect him to be right in the mix this campaign and prove why he is still one of the best strikers in the world.
