Lukaku’s late Champions League final miss leaves Inter Milan forever asking ‘What if?’

Romelu Lukaku (Photo by ANDREAS SOLARO / AFP)

Romelu Lukaku couldn’t have had much sleep on Saturday night in Istanbul. He might not yesterday or today either. His failure to score for Inter Milan in the 88th minute of the Champions League final against Manchester City will haunt his nights as much as his days for a while, writes Julien Laurens of espn.co.uk.

It will also, undoubtedly, launch a new wave of criticism and online mockery of the Belgium international. Chances like the one the striker got at the Ataturk stadium, a free header inside the six-yard box, don’t come too often. Certainly not in a Champions League final. And especially not right at the end of the game to surely send it to extra time.

Yet, it did happen. Lukaku failed to score. The Expected Goals on Target (xGOT) of his chance, which was blocked by goalkeeper Ederson’s knee, was 0.69. That means that seven times out of 10, when a player is in the same position as Lukaku, hits the target, they score. Statistically speaking, it’s more than twice as hard to not score that chance.

For a while after the final whistle, Lukaku stood on the pitch, alone, looking empty, feeling nothing. While his teammate, Lautaro Martinez, was in tears and being comforted by other Inter players, Lukaku didn’t show much emotion. He never does. But he had to wait for City midfielder and fellow Belgian, Kevin De Bruyne, to cross the whole pitch while the title celebrations were happening to get a proper hug. The two go back a long way and De Bruyne wanted to be there for his friend. He will need it.

Yesterday, all the world of football is talking about is the miss – on every TV show, in every newspaper and on every radio station. The miss gets replayed, analysed and discussed. How