De Bruyne Scores Goals In The 100th Match, Belgium Beats Montenegro 2-0

Kevin De Bruyne scored a goal to mark his 100th appearance for the Belgian national team (photo: x @BelRedDevils)

JAKARTA - Kevin De Bruyne scored to mark his 100th appearance for the Belgian national team and bring his country to a 2-0 win over Montenegro in Brussels on Wednesday 5 June in the first friendly match of two matches before heading to the 2024 European Cup (Euro 2024).

The Belgian captain fired a long-range shot one minute before the first half ended to give his team the lead after goalkeeper Montenegro was caught in the wrong position due to a defensive error.

A back pass in the 44th minute forced Sarkic, who played for Millwall, out of his box to try to block the ball, but Lois Openda managed to steal the ball and gave De Bruyne a chance to score a goal remotely to mark his special game.

This was a crushing blow to Matija Sarkic, who was born in England, who managed to withstand Belgium's quick attack for most of the first half with a series of incredible saves. Especially Yannick Carrasco's efforts, who had four clear chances of scoring but always failed.

Sarkic made another brilliant save after a break when a deflected Maxim De Cuyper shot appeared to enter the corner of the net, but he managed to parry it.

Montenegro almost equalized through Milutin Osmajic's counter-attack, which exposed the lack of speed at Axel Witsel returning to play for Belgium after retiring from the national team. Osmajic's efforts in the 60th minute were rescued by Belgian goalkeeper Koen Casteels.

Leandro Trossard took the lead through the penalty spot at the last second of the game. Montenegro might keep the score 1-0, but they collapsed at the end of the game with Milos Brnovic being sent off because the second yellow card was in the 88th minute before Stefan Mugosa fouled Jeremy Doku and awarded a penalty that was well executed by Trossard.

De Bruyne was pulled out after the first half of Belgium made substitutions in an effort to give as many players as possible a chance to play before their first game at Euro 2024.

They will have their second friendly against Luxembourg in Brussels on Saturday 8 June before leaving for Germany next week. Belgium's opening match at Euro 2024 is the Group E match against Slovakia in Frankfurt on 17 June. They will also face Romania and Ukraine.