Yeah, that was a bit of a surprise! Because Marc Wilmots made seven substitutions instead of the allowed six during the Belgium vs. Luxembourg friendly, FIFA decided to downgrade the game to a training match. That means no official caps or goals count from that match — so Romelu Lukaku’s hat-trick doesn’t go into his official stats, and the debuts of players like Simon Mignolet’s backup, Bossut, as well as Januzaj and Origi, don’t officially register either.
This kind of technicality is important because it affects FIFA rankings and player records. So for the upcoming friendly against Tunisia on June 7, Wilmots will need to be more careful with substitutions if he wants the game to be fully recognized by FIFA.
