Romelu Lukaku heating up for AS Roma, stays cool on talk of future

AS Roma absolutely hammered Roberto De Zerbi’s Brighton & Hove Albion last night in the first leg of their Europa League Round of 16 tie in Rome, 4-0, with Romelu Lukaku getting in on the action as well.

The Chelsea loanee gave the home side a two-goal lead just before half-time, taking advantage of a mistake from Lewis Dunk, before Roma essentially put the tie to bed with two more goals in the second half.

Lukaku has now scored in back-to-back games (in all competitions) after going five without a goal in the league. And Roma are in excellent form overall, having climbed back up to fifth in Serie A, just four points off fourth-place Bologna (!?). Were Roma able to finish fourth and qualify for the Champions League (or win Europa), surely their chances of keeping Lukaku beyond this season would increase.

The man himself is trying to play coy on all that, under the impression that anyone actually still assigns any weight to what he might say, or not say, about such things.

“As soon as I arrived [in Rome], I saw how much the fans love this team. [...] I try to give my best for Roma, many people don’t know what my situation was, so I thank Roma.”

“I don’t want to cause controversy in England [and not answer if I want to remain], I have to be intelligent about this.”

-Romelu Lukaku; source: Football-Italia

Chelsea are said to have a £37m “exit agreement” with Lukaku, so hopefully he keeps up his goalscoring — he has 18 on the season in all competitions.