Sporting Life
Heartbreak for Japan: Belgium celebrate their late winner in the last 16 of the World Cup
Heartbreak for Japan: Belgium celebrate their late winner in the last 16 of the World Cup

Belgium 3-2 Japan: Dramatic Red Devils comeback books quarter-final place

Football
Mon July 02, 2018 · 6y ago

Belgium staged a dramatic comeback to beat Japan, winning 3-2 with the last kick of the game in an enthralling second half in Rostov-On-Don.

Online bookmaker Sky Bet have priced Belgium at 5/1 to win the tournament following their victory, with fellow quarter-finalists Brazil 5/2 favourites, France are 4/1, while England are 11/2.

Roberto Martinez's side were overwhelming favourites to progress to the quarter-finals after pipping England as winners of Group G but two goals in four minutes from Genki Haraguchi (48) and Takashi Inui (52) gave Japan a shock 2-0 lead.

Jan Vertonghen's looping header (69) gave Belgium hope before substitute Marouane Fellaini's trademark finish (74) from Eden Hazard's cross brought the scores level.

With the last kick of the game, a sweeping counter-attack was finished off with Nacer Chadli at the far post as Belgium progress to the last eight on Friday at the Kazan Arena.

They will face Brazil, who won the other World Cup round of 16 clash of the day, with Neymar scoring one and assisting another as they ran out 2-0 winners in Samara.

Opta match statistics

Japan celebrate after taking the lead
  • Belgium are the first team to come from 2+ goals down to win a World Cup knockout stage match within 90 minutes since Portugal beat DPR Korea in the 1966 quarter-final (0-3 down, 5-3 win).
  • Belgium have reached the World Cup quarter-finals in successive tournaments for the first time.
  • There were just four minutes and 16 seconds between Japan’s two goals, and just four minutes and 30 seconds between Belgium’s two to level the scores.
  • There have now been nine 90th minute winning goals in the 2018 World Cup. There were just 10 in the previous five tournaments combined (1998, 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014).
  • Eden Hazard has been directly involved in 19 goals in his 18 games for Belgium under Roberto Martinez, scoring 10 and assisting nine.

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Odds correct at 2150 BST on 02/07/18

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