Belgium striker Romelu Lukaku scored four first-half goals to lead a 5-0 rout of 10-man Azerbaijan in their final European Championship qualifying game, while Serbia locked up its spot at Euro 2024 after drawing 2-2 with Bulgaria on Sunday.
Lukaku leads the scoring in the qualifiers with 14 goals, four more than Cristiano Ronaldo before his Portugal team plays Iceland later. Lukaku’s haul set a record for European Championship qualifying, beating the previous mark of 13 goals held by Poland’s Robert Lewandowski (in Euro 2016 qualifying) and Northern Ireland’s David Healy (Euro 2008 qualifying).
The Roma striker took all four of his goals between the 17th and 37th minutes in an awesome display of clinical finishing. Following Lukaku’s opener to make it 1-0, Azerbaijan was down to 10 players in the 24th after Eddy Pascual got his second yellow card.
Belgium had already qualified along with Austria from Group F before the game in Brussels, but the victory meant it finished in first place. Sweden beat Estonia 2-0 and ended up third in the group.