Lukaku shows he is capable of more than just scoring

Russia was the target of almost 25 million cyber-attacks during the World Cup, President Vladimir Putin said, though he did not indicate who may have been behind the attacks.

"During the period of the World Cup, almost 25 million cyber-attacks and other criminal acts on the information structures in Russia, linked in one way or another to the World Cup, were neutralised," Putin said during a meeting on Sunday with security services. The comments were reported by the Kremlin on Monday.

Thierry Henry said that it will be difficult for Romelu Lukaku to handle after he made some crucial mistakes in Inter's Champions League final loss against Manchester City.

Lukaku missed a clear chance to equalise late on in Inter's Champions League final loss to Manchester City. Henry, who was his former assistant manager for the Belgian national team, admitted that the striker will likely struggle with his mistake.

"He's gonna have to go through exactly what he went through after the World Cup," Henry said on CBS Sports. "People will still, although I think it was a tough one with Dimarco, people will still blame him.

"The header in the six-yard box will come back to haunt him. He's gonna have to live with that. I've lost finals, I've won finals, sometimes you're not on the right side.

Lukaku had similar difficulties in the World Cup when he missed a handful of chances in Belgium's final group game draw against Croatia - a contest his side needed to win.

Romelu Lukaku ensured Napoli maintained their one-point lead at the top of Serie A with the only goal in Sunday's 1-0 win over his old club Roma.

Belgium striker Lukaku poked home his fifth Napoli goal from Giovanni Di Lorenzo's low cross seven minutes after half-time in Naples, handing veteran Claudio Ranieri a defeat on his return to management with his boyhood club Roma.

Napoli lead Atalanta, Inter Milan, Fiorentina and Lazio by a point -- with Juventus four points off the pace in sixth -- in a crowded title race which is yet to offer up a clear favourite for the Scudetto.

"We knew before kick-off that this was going to be a big match for us because the other teams all won," said Lukaku to Sky Sport.

"It's too early to talk about the title. All we can do is look out for how we develop as a team, work to improve and win every match we play. But now is not the moment to talk about the title."

Napoli were the better team at the Stadio Maradona and should have been ahead as early as the second minute when Khvicha Kvaratskhelia somehow sent a free header wide from less than six yards out.

Kvaratskhelia was also involved four minutes after half-time with a pinpoint cross from which Lukaku glanced just wide.

- Roma 'problems', Lazio highs -

Ranieri has a job on his hands at Roma, who are four points above the relegation zone in 12th, but his team were unlucky not to level in the 66th minute when Artem Dovbyk thwacked a header off the bar.

"We have problems, that's why they called me, and we played against a team fighting to win the title," said Ranieri.

"Given all that, I'm happy with the performance. We made mistakes but the desire to get the season on the right track is there."

Roma's struggles will hurt fans all the more given the hot form of their local rivals Lazio, who beat 10-man Bologna 3-0 to claim their seventh straight win in all competitions.

Samuel Gigot nodded home his first Lazio goal 67 minutes into his full Serie A debut and four minutes later captain Mattia Zaccagni curled home a fine finish to effectively end the match as a contest.

Substitute Fisayo Dele-Bashiru completed the scoring in stoppage time for Lazio who sit fifth, some 15 points ahead of Roma as Marco Baroni's side continue to defy expectations.

Bologna, who lost Tommaso Pobega to a red card in the 35th minute, sit eighth on 18 points, but have a game in hand.

- Reborn Kean -

Moise Kean continued his revival at Fiorentina by netting in a 2-0 win at Como which was his team's seventh in a row in Serie A.

The 24-year-old has been reborn in Florence after failing to score a single goal at Juventus last season and has scored seven times in his last four matches in Italy's top flight.

"Obviously people look at the goal, but the whole team has worked very hard with him... he's developing and starting to reap the rewards," said Fiorentina coach Raffaele Palladino.

Kean's 68th-minute strike was his ninth in 12 league appearances under Palladino, whose team host champions Inter next weekend.

Fiorentina didn't have things all their own way, and had David de Gea to thank for a superb triple save on the hour mark when they still only led by Yacine Adli's 20th-minute opener.

Como are one point and place above Lecce, who are just inside the relegation zone and take on bottom side Venezia on Monday, after a fifth defeat in a worrying seven-match winless run.

Patrick Vieira was denied a winning start as Genoa manager after a late Roberto Piccoli penalty gave fellow Serie A strugglers Cagliari a 2-2 away draw.

Piccoli's spot-kick leaves Genoa in 16th, level with Cagliari and two points above Lecce.

Croatia coach Zlatko Dalic is prepared to make changes for Sunday's World Cup final against France if some of his players have not recovered from their exertions in reaching football's biggest game.

Dalic's men have been forced to go through three periods of extra-time against Denmark, Russia and England to become the smallest country in 68 years to make the final.

"Tomorrow is the World Cup final. Simply, the players know what that is," Dalic said on Saturday.

"One thing that brings me happiness is that all my players tell me if they are not 100 percent fit. They will concede and say they are not fit. They know what is at stake, but if they are unable to give their all they will tell us. They have such an attitude."

Ivan Perisic, who scored and set up Mario Mandzukic's winner in a 2-1 semi-final win over England, was among five Croatian players to miss training on Friday.

"We have nothing to train. We need relaxation and rest to gain freshness for tomorrow. We have some minor injuries, minor problems, and I hope my players will be ready. If not, I have great players on the bench who will be raring to go."

Portugal finished their Euro 2024 qualifying campaign with a 100-percent record by beating Iceland 2-0 on Sunday, after Serbia booked their place at next year's finals in Germany and Romelu Lukaku scored four goals for Belgium.

Bruno Fernandes and Ricardo Horta netted the goals for Roberto Martinez's Portugal, with Cristiano Ronaldo not on the scoresheet, to end with 10 wins from 10 matches in Group J.

The 2016 winners will be among the favourites for the title in what could be the 38-year-old Ronaldo's last major tournament.

Slovakia finished eight points behind Portugal in the second qualifying place after a 2-1 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina in Zenica.

Luxembourg, who will head into the play-offs, were a further five points adrift after closing out an impressive group-stage showing with a 1-0 success in Leichtenstein.

Earlier Sunday, Serbia qualified for the first time as an independent nation, after four previous failures to get to the main event, with a 2-2 draw against Bulgaria.

The Serbs finish second in Group G behind Hungary who snuffed out any hopes Montenegro had of progressing by beating them 3-1 in Budapest.

"The players showed a mentality of not giving up, believing in themselves," said Serbia coach Dragan Stojkovic.

"It's a big day for Serbian football. Serbia is finally at the European Championship.

"I congratulate my boys, who fought until the end and believed. We are happy and satisfied."

Centre-back Milos Veljkovic put Serbia ahead in the 17th minute before substitute Georgi Rusev levelled for Bulgaria in the 59th.

Ten minutes later Kiril Despodov put the visitors ahead but Srdjan Babic equalised eight minutes from time to ensure Serbia would become the 17th team to qualify for Euro 2024.

Montenegro needed Serbia to lose to have any hope of taking their place in Germany but also needed to win against the Hungarians who have eased impressively through qualifying.

Slobodan Rubezic put Montenegro ahead on 36 minutes but Hungary hit back i the second half with two goals in three minutes from Liverpool midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai before Zsolt Nagy rounded off the win in added time.

Lukaku on fire 

PHOTO: AFP

Lukaku scored four goals as Belgium finished with a 5-0 thrashing of Azerbaijan.

Roma striker Lukaku extended his record tally of international goals for Belgium to 83, with all of his goals coming in a remarkable first half in Brussels.

He opened the scoring in the 17th minute by converting a Jeremy Doku cross, before Eddy Israfilov was shown a second yellow card seven minutes later to leave the Azeris with a mountain to climb.

Lukaku fired home shortly afterwards and then headed in Wout Faes' delivery to complete a hat-trick.

He rounded off his scoring spree of four goals in 20 minutes before being replaced by Lois Openda at half-time.

The Belgians took their foot off the gas in the second period but Leandro Trossard added a fifth in the 90th minute from another Doku assist.

Belgium finished top of Group F, one point clear of Austria, with both having wrapped up qualification with matches to spare.

Sweden ended a miserable campaign, in which they failed to qualify for a European Championship for the first time since 1996, with a 2-0 win over Estonia in the other game in the group.

Gavi injured 

PHOTO: AFP

Barcelona star Gavi limped off with a nasty knee injury in Spain's 3-1 victory against Georgia which secured top spot in Group A above Scotland.

The 19-year-old was tackled from behind in the first half, buckling the knee that had his weight on it, before leaving the pitch in tears.

"This is a very tough and very difficult moment," said Spain coach Luis de la Fuente.

"For the (Spanish football) federation, for me, for his friends. But above all for him and for his club.

"We're destroyed. Football is a risk sport and this is the ugly part of our sport."

Goals from Robin Le Normand and Ferran Torres and a Luka Lochoshvili own goal helped Spain past a spirited Georgia, who drew level at 1-1 early on through Napoli star Khvicha Kvaratskhelia.

Already-qualified Scotland needed to beat Norway and hope for Spain to slip up to snatch first place, but were held to a dramatic 3-3 draw at Hampden Park.