It’s almost as strange is it is welcome to see Roméo Lavia consistently available to play for club and country, but the 22-year-old midfielder continued his healthy start to the season with another appearance for Belgium, coming off the bench on the hour-mark in a 3-0 win over Turkey. (All the goals were scored by ex-Chelsea players: Kevin De Bruyne with a brace and Romelu Lukaku adding the third.)
Lavia has started four of our five Premier League games this season — as many as he started all of last
season — and he’s played in all three of Belgium’s games so far during this international break (getting his first senior international start in the process as well), so hopefully this is indeed a turning point in terms of injuries for the young midfielder’s career.
Still, new Belgium manager Mark van Bommel said before the game that they are being careful with Lavia’s workload, which is nice to hear as well.
“Roméo came on as a substitute against Italy and played 85 minutes against France. He did a fantastic job. You can already assume that I won’t be starting him [against Turkey]. Chelsea are being cautious with him, and so are we. We want to make optimal use of his qualities.”
-Mark van Bommel; source: Evening Standard
Speaking of workloads, Maxence Lacroix has played every minute of all but one of our games so far this season, and he had started both of France’s games last week, so it was nice to see him on the bench for their 1-1 draw against Italy last night. Lacroix probably would’ve had the whole day off were it not for a red card to Dayot Upamecano in the dying minutes of the contest. Lacroix would play the final three minutes and stoppage time to preserve the point and France’s top spot in their Nations League group.
And speaking of defenders, Josh Acheampong continued to play a key role for England U21 as they secured their spot at next summer’s U21 Euros with a goalless draw against Slovakia. It was the sixth successive full-90 in this unbeaten qualification campaign for the 20-year-old. Congrats!
