De Bruyne seals Belgium's 2-0 win over Romania to get Euro 2024 campaign on track

COLOGNE, Germany (AP) — Kevin De Bruyne scored and Belgium got its European Championship campaign up and running after beating Romania 2-0 on Saturday.

The No. 3-ranked Belgians shook off the shock of losing to Slovakia in their opening game by responding with a dominant performance in front of the Belgium royal family at Cologne Stadium.

Youri Tielemans gave them a flying start with a goal from the edge of the area in the second minute.

De Bruyne effectively killed the game off in the 80th after converting direct from Belgium goalkeeper Koen Casteels' long kick.

All four teams in Group E have three points, meaning there is all to play for in the final round of games on Wednesday.

While Belgium won, there was more frustration for Romelu Lukaku, who had a third goal ruled out by VAR at these Euros.

Still, he was at the center of his team’s great start when laying the ball off for Tielemans to score with a low drive from the edge of the box.

It was just what Belgium needed after the Slovakia stunner, which raised the prospect of another early exit from a major tournament after being eliminated at the group stage of the 2022 World Cup.

The format of the Euros, in which the four best third-place teams advance, leaves more room for error. But with memories of Qatar still fresh, another defeat would have broken the confidence of a team criticized for failing to live up to expectations in the past.

Tielemans’ goal seemed to lift the pressure, and Belgium ruled the rest of the half with 67% of possession.

Lukaku thought he scored after the break, but VAR said he strayed offside before firing past Romania keeper Florin Nita.

The longer the game went on without Belgium scoring a second, the more the tension rose.

Dennis Man could have evened the score when running through on goal, but was denied by Casteels.

The keeper then turned provider with a long punt upfield, which De Bruyne raced on to and fired home.

Under former Belgium coach Roberto Martinez, Portugal advanced to the knockout phase after a 3-0 win against Turkey in Group F. Georgia picked up its first ever point at a major tournament after a drawing the Czech Republic 1-1 and still has hopes of advancing.

James Robson is at https://twitter.com/jamesalanrobson

AP Euro 2024: https://apnews.com/hub/euro-2024

Belgium's King Philippe, Queen Mathilde, Prince Emmanuel and Prince Gabriel arrive for a Group E match between Belgium and Romania at the Euro 2024 soccer tournament in Cologne, Germany, Saturday, June 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

Romanian players react after a Group E match between Belgium and Romania at the Euro 2024 soccer tournament in Cologne, Germany, Saturday, June 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

Romania's Andrei Ratiu, left, and Romania's Marius Marin react after a Group E match between Belgium and Romania at the Euro 2024 soccer tournament in Cologne, Germany, Saturday, June 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

Belgium's Kevin De Bruyne , front, vies for the ball with Romania's Marius Marin during a Group E match between Belgium and Romania at the Euro 2024 soccer tournament in Cologne, Germany, Saturday, June 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

Belgium's Romelu Lukaku celebrates after scoring a later disallowed goal during a Group E match between Belgium and Romania at the Euro 2024 soccer tournament in Cologne, Germany, Saturday, June 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

Belgium's Romelu Lukaku, right, scores his side's second goal during a Group E match between Belgium and Romania at the Euro 2024 soccer tournament in Cologne, Germany, Saturday, June 22, 2024. The goal was later disallowed after a VAR review. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Belgium's Kevin De Bruyne celebrates after scoring his side's second goal with teammates during a Group E match between Belgium and Romania at the Euro 2024 soccer tournament in Cologne, Germany, Saturday, June 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

Romania's Andrei Burca reacts after missing a scoring chance during a Group E match between Belgium and Romania at the Euro 2024 soccer tournament in Cologne, Germany, Saturday, June 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Romania's Dennis Man kicks past Belgium's Arthur Theateduring a Group E match between Belgium and Romania at the Euro 2024 soccer tournament in Cologne, Germany, Saturday, June 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

Belgium's Kevin De Bruyne celebrates after scoring his side's second goal during a Group E match between Belgium and Romania at the Euro 2024 soccer tournament in Cologne, Germany, Saturday, June 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

Belgium's Kevin De Bruyne, rear center, celebrates after scoring his side's second goal during a Group E match between Belgium and Romania at the Euro 2024 soccer tournament in Cologne, Germany, Saturday, June 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Belgium's Kevin De Bruyne, left, celebrates with Belgium's Yannick Carrasco after scoring his side's second goal during a Group E match between Belgium and Romania at the Euro 2024 soccer tournament in Cologne, Germany, Saturday, June 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

LONDON (AP) — The European Union is escalating its scrutiny of the artificial intelligence industry, including taking a fresh look into Microsoft's multibillion-dollar partnership with OpenAI, a top EU official said Friday.

The European Commission, the bloc's executive arm, started reviewing the deal last year to see whether it broke EU merger rules but dropped it after concluding Microsoft hadn't gained control of OpenAI, Margrethe Vestager, the commission’s executive vice-president for competition policy, said in a speech.

“Microsoft has invested $13 billion in OpenAI over the years,” she said “But we have to make sure that partnerships like this do not become a disguise for one partner getting a controlling influence over the other.”

She signalled that the commission would take another tack to examine the deal, and the industry more broadly. It's using the bloc's antitrust rules, which target abusive behavior by companies that have a dominant market position.

The commission sent information requests in March to big AI players including Microsoft, Google, Facebook and TikTok, reviewed those replies and is “now sending a follow-up request for information on the agreement between Microsoft and OpenAI,” Vestager said.

The EU wants “to understand whether certain exclusivity clauses could have a negative effect on competitors,” she said.

A Microsoft spokesman said, “We appreciate the European Commission’s thorough review and its conclusion that Microsoft’s investment and partnership with OpenAI does not give Microsoft control over the company. We stand ready to respond to any additional questions the European Commission may have.”

OpenAI didn’t respond immediately to a request for comment.

The stepped-up scrutiny highlights how European Union regulators have been pacesetters for the global push to rein in big tech companies, including the major AI players. The EU's led the field with its AI Act, which is set to take effect soon and is the world’s first comprehensive set of regulations for AI.

Vestager said the bloc was also concerned about consumer choices for foundation models, which is the technology that underpins generative AI systems like chatbots.

She said EU regulators have sent information requests “to better understand the effects of Google’s arrangement with Samsung" to pre-install Gemini Nano on some devices from the South Korean tech company. Gemini Nano is the smallest version of Google's Gemini AI foundation model.

"And we have a number of other preliminary antitrust investigations ongoing into various practices in AI-related markets," she added.

The commission is also examining so-called “acqui-hires,” where a company buys another one mainly for its talent, such as Microsoft's hiring of Inflection AI's founder Mustafa Suleyman, and other top staff.

“We will make sure these practices don’t slip through our merger control rules if they basically lead to a concentration,” she said.

FILE- The OpenAI logo is displayed on a cell phone with an image on a computer monitor generated by ChatGPT's Dall-E text-to-image model, Dec. 8, 2023, in Boston. The European Union is escalating its scrutiny of the artificial intelligence industry, including taking a fresh look into Microsoft’s multibillion-dollar partnership with OpenAI. The bloc started reviewing the multibillion-dollar deal last year to see whether it broke EU merger rules but dropped it after concluding Microsoft hadn’t gained control of OpenAI. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, File)