World Cup: Belgium rallies past Senegal on controversial late penalty to reach Round of 16
SEATTLE — In one of the wildest finishes of the Round of 32 yet, Belgium beat Senegal 3-2 in extra time after a miraculous comeback.
Though Senegal took a two-goal lead in the second half, Belgium scored goals in the 86th and 89th minutes to send the game to extra time. Though neither team was initially able to break through, Belgium was awarded a crucial, and somewhat controversial penalty in stoppage time of the second extra-time period after Red Devils captain Youri Tielemans was fouled by Lamine Camara in the box.
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Tielemans then nailed the penalty into the upper right corner and past Senegal keeper Mory Diaw, sealing the deal on the Red Devils’ wild comeback finish.
Though the game itself didn’t go into a penalty shootout, Tielemans said postgame that he and the team have been practicing penalty kicks in anticipation of the knockout round.
“We’ve been practicing the last few days,” he said, noting that two of the early Round of 32 games went to penalties. “In that moment you just try to be confident, to trust your abilities. That’s what I did and I scored, so I’m very happy with that.”
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Senegal did its best to try and find an equalizer in the final minutes, even getting a dangerous free kick right outside the box in the final kick of the game. But those final efforts weren’t enough to keep the Lions of Teranga from going home.
“It’s a shame,” Senegal defender Krépin Diatta said of the blown 2-0 lead. “It’s really a shame.”
Belgium erased Senegal’s 2-0 lead in just three minutes
Though Belgium entered the game as a slight favorite, it was Senegal that controlled the first half. The Lions of Teranga had some excellent chances on goal before finally finding the back of the net: Though Ismaïla Sarr‘s initial header hit the post, Habib Diarra was there to score on the rebound.
Senegal added to that tally just a few minutes into the second half off a majestic goal from Sarr. A beautiful long ball from Moussa Niakhaté found Sarr well down the field, and the striker sprinted through three Belgian defenders before sending a perfect strike past Thibaut Courtois.
As time wound down, the Senegalese thought that they had it, but the Belgians dashed those hopes in a miraculous three-minute span. In the 86th minute, second-half substitute Romelu Lukaku suddenly took one back for the Red Devils.
Then, in the 89th minute, Tielemans pulled Diaw off his line for a tough finish to level things just before stoppage time.
Tielemans’ clutch extra-time penalty then gave him a crucial brace to keep Belgium’s World Cup run alive in dramatic fashion. While the PK might’ve been the final blow, Senegal had lost control of the game a long time before — something head coach Pape Thiaw also admitted after the game.
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“We were winning 2-0, and at the end we fell short. We wanted to keep the score as it was, and when we conceded a goal, our energy dropped and then came the second one,” Thiaw said. “A football match is not an 85-minute one. Belgium came back and we were not able to deal with that.”
Statistically, Senegal was more disciplined and had more big chances than the Red Devils. But the final score is some that reflects that differently, something that Belgium manager Rudi Garcia acknowledged postgame.
Repeatedly through his press conference, Garcia said Senegal “deserved to win.”
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“I said before the match it was the worst draw for us in the Round of 32. Senegal is a great team,” he said.
Garcia also spoke about the bold choice to make four of his five substitutions before the 65th minute, including taking out star players Kevin De Bruyne and Jeremy Doku in the 56th minute.
“The victory came from the bench. Everybody contributed. We need everybody. We cannot get results with only the starting 11,” Garica said.
The Red Devils will now move on to the Round of 16, where they will stay in Seattle and face the winner of the match between United States and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
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