A Romelu Lukaku brace, combined with Dries Mertens' wonderful effort, fired Belgium to a 3-0 victory over Panama in their Group G encounter.
Lukaku is into 9/2 second-favourite to secure the Golden Boot Award with Sky Bet, after drawing level with Diego Costa and Denis Cheryshev on two goals, one behind Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo.
Panama had done well to go into the half-time break with the score goalless, but Belgium's quality prevailed in the second-half and they grabbed the lead in the 47th minute with a wonder strike from Mertens.
The Napoli midfielder waited for the ball to drop from a headed clearance and struck a fine volley from the corner of the 18 yard area which flew into the far corner at pace, Panama goalkeeper Jaime Penedo with no chance to stop it.
Belgium doubled their advantage with a little over 20 minutes to go through Lukaku.
Kevin De Bruyne curled the ball across goal and the Manchester United striker was on hand to meet it with a diving header which all but ended the game as a contest.
Belgium made it three a matter of minutes later and it was Lukaku again who found the net to seal what was ultimately a convincing win.
A rare Panama attacking move broke down on the edge of the Belgium box and the ball was quickly played forward to Eden Hazard, whose pass found Lukaku before he clipped the ball over Penedo.
Opta facts
- Belgium are now unbeaten in their last 10 World Cup group games (W5 D5 L0), winning each of their last five.
- Each of the last 11 goals that Belgium have scored in World Cup matches have come after half-time.
- Panama were given five yellow cards in this match – the last time that a team were given more in a single World Cup game was in the 2010 final (Netherlands – seven).
- Overall, there were eight yellow cards in this match between Belgium and Panama – the most of any game at the 2018 World Cup so far and also more than in any single game at the 2014 tournament.
- Belgium have won all 13 international matches that Dries Mertens has scored in.
- Dries Mertens became the first Belgian player to score in two successive World Cup tournaments since Marc Wilmots (1998 and 2002).
- It took 49 minutes and 10 seconds for Belgian playmaker Kevin De Bruyne to make his first successful pass in the match to teammate and striker Romelu Lukaku. His second pass (68:11) assisted a goal for Lukaku.
- Romelu Lukaku has been directly involved in 13 of Belgium's last 19 goals (11 goals, two assists).
- Only Jan Ceulemans (6) has scored more goals in major tournaments (World Cup & European Championships) for Belgium than Romelu Lukaku (5 - level with Marc Wilmots).
- Eden Hazard has been directly involved in 16 goals in his last 15 appearances for Belgium (eight goals, eight assists).
Odds correct at 1800 BST (18/06/18)
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