The wild swings in Inter striker Romelu Lukaku’s form in front of goal between the Champions League and Serie A have become a perfect illustrations of the Nerazzurri as a whole between Europe and the league.
This is the view in today’s print edition of Turin-based newspaper Tuttosport, via FCInter1908, who note that the 29-year-old has managed to be a decisive presence in the Champions League, but continues to show hapless form in the league as the Nerazzurri see a top four spot slipping away.
In Europe, Lukaku has certainly been good value whenever he has played.
Whilst the Belgian barely featured during the group stage due to injury, his brief cameo against Viktoria Plzen proved to be more than enough time to show his quality as he scored off the bench in the final match of the group stage campaign.
Since the knockouts began, Lukaku has always managed to be the player who makes the difference.
Even though the 29-year-old has not started any of Inter’s three knockout matches to date, he has certainly proven how lethal he can be in front of goal with the opportunities that he has been given.
Lukaku put in easily one of the best performances of his entire second spell at Inter off the bench in the second half of a round of sixteen first leg against Porto, scoring what proved to be the only goal of the tie.
Then, in the first leg of the quarterfinals against Benfica, the Belgian came off the bench and gave the team a big boost in the final third, before showing absolutely no sign of nerves to dispatch a penalty for the team’s second goal on the night.
All of this has meant that Lukaku is scoring at a rate of once every 29 minutes in the Champions League.
Things could hardly be more different in Serie A, as the Belgian has still not found the back of the net from open play since his header in the first couple minutes of the very first match of the season away to Lecce.
Whilst Lukaku has scored a couple times from the penalty spot, he has seen a number of good chances go begging in the league over the past few matches, not least a downright sitter against Fiorentina in a 0-1 loss.
Whilst the Belgian’s overall performances have shown no lack of application as he has been an important presence with his holdup play, when he gets within range of the goal things just seem to break down.
As Tuttosport observes, this seems to be the entire team’s form in miniature, as clinical and incisive performances in Europe have increasingly been contrasted with a complete lack of cutting edge in Serie A.
