With everyone’s eyes on the action in France and with every big club’s manager drawing up their wish lists, these European Championships are the perfect stage for players to showcase their talent and put themselves firmly in the shop window.
Two players who have been rumoured to be on the move this summer – with Stamford Bridge being a potential destination for both – Alvaro Morata and former Blue Romelu Lukaku. However, with Chelsea unlikely to sign both players, are the two in direct competition as to who can shine the brightest in France this summer?
The two were amongst bookmakers’ favourites to win the tournament’s golden boot and, despite neither getting off to the best of starts, both Lukaku and Morata scored braces in their respective second fixtures, albeit against an abysmal Turkey and a weak Republic of Ireland side.
Alvaro Morata’s tournament debut for the championship holders Spain was the better of the two players’ displays, but there were still a few chances that went begging and the current Juventus man was criticised for his positioning and movement outside of the box.
Spain’s boss Vicente Del Bosque kept faith in the youngster and was repaid with a lovely glancing header to open the scoring in the first half, before the Spaniard scored his side’s third and final goal just after the restart, as Jordi Alba set him up for an easy tap in.
Romelu Lukaku’s first appearance of the tournament was far from performance he would have desired. Nothing seemed to go right for the big Belgian and his movement, as well as his touch amongst many other things, fell under heavy criticism from pundits. And all in front of one of the men he would have liked to impress the most – soon-to-be Chelsea head coach Antonio Conte.
Whereas Morata’s start in Spain’s second game would have shocked very few people, there would have been a few surprised faces to see Lukaku’s name on the team sheet against the Republic of Ireland; with Belgium coach Willmots making a few changes to the very unimpressive side that suffered defeat at the hands of the Italians earlier in the week.
But the coaches choice to give Lukaku another chance proved to be the right one, as he slotted home the opening goal with a very neat finish from just outside the box before going on to claim his side’s third and final goal with a tap in of his own, through a great assist by Chelsea star Eden Hazard!
The starts made by both players are almost identical to one another and, in truth, the two are not dissimilar in their style of play, nor in what they could offer Chelsea’s front-line next season.
Morata, 23, is a great finisher with a breathtaking turn of pace, even with the ball at his feet, as he showed when he set up Chelsea Loanee Juan Cuadrado in this season’s clash with Bayern Munich in the Champions League – a competition in which he boasts 28 appearances during his time at Real Madrid and Juventus.
Lukaku, also 23, is quick in his own right and a very physical, as he showed when he single-handedly dismantled an admittedly shambolic Chelsea defence in Everton’s FA Cup quarter-final victory over the Blues this season. Though his club career in Europe is limited to just the Europa League and a Super-cup cameo for Chelsea – in which he missed the decisive penalty in the shoot-out – he has proven that he can score plenty of goals in the Premier League.
With the similarities quite apparent, whichever player Chelsea chooses to pursue in the remainder of the transfer window could easily depend on which of the two heavily sought-after stars has the better end to the tournament.
Which one do you think should Chelsea go for this summer?
