Tielemans\u2019s penalty late into stoppage time of extra time capped Belgium\u2019s comeback from 2-0 down in Seattle.<\/p>\n
Published On 2 Jul 20262 Jul 2026<\/p>\n
Youri Tielemans struck a 125th-minute penalty as Belgium rallied from two goals down and defeated Senegal 3-2 after extra time in their World Cup last \u2060-32 clash in Seattle to keep alive their title hopes, which had looked dead and buried.<\/p>\n
Senegal\u2019s Lamine Camara slid in on Tielemans as the ball flashed across the face of goal and conceded the spot kick after a \u2060\u2060video assistant referee review, with the Belgian picking out the top corner to complete an extraordinary comeback on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Habib Diarra and Ismaila Sarr had given Senegal a deserved 2-0 lead, and they looked to be cruising through to the next round before Belgium netted twice in the final four minutes through Romelu Lukaku and Tielemans to force extra time.<\/p>\n
Belgium now face the winner of \u200c\u200cWednesday\u2019s last-32 clash between cohosts United States and Bosnia and Herzegovina in the next round in Seattle on Monday.<\/p>\n
It was cruel on Senegal, who controlled much of the 90 minutes, and struck the woodwork twice, but could not see out the game.<\/p>\n
They became the fourth African side to bow out in a narrow defeat in the last 32 after South Africa, Ivory Coast, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and will wonder how they managed to let this one slip.<\/p>\n
Senegal were inches away from the lead when Ismail Jakobs\u2019s cross from the \u2060\u2060left was parried by Thibaut Courtois, but a stretching Sarr could only steer the \u2060\u2060loose ball onto the post.<\/p>\n
When the African side did break the deadlock in the 25th minute, it was no surprise. Sadio Mane\u2019s cross was headed goal-wards by Sarr, but his effort came off the post again.<\/p>\n
This time, the loose ball fell kindly for Diarra, and he side-footed home \u2060\u2060from 7 yards.<\/p>\n
Maxim De Cuyper forced an excellent save from Senegal goalkeeper Mory Diaw with a shot that looked to be heading into the top corner as Belgium trailed \u2060\u2060at the break.<\/p>\n
Belgium brought on Lukaku for the ineffective \u2060\u2060Charles De Ketelaere at half-time, but were soon 2-0 down.<\/p>\n
A stunning long pass from Moussa Niakhate was brilliantly controlled on the chest by Sarr, who held off two defenders before thundering the ball into the net in the 51st minute.<\/p>\n
Belgium struggled to create clear-cut chances until the final five minutes, \u200c\u200cand almost out of nowhere turned the game on its head by netting twice in three minutes.<\/p>\n
First, Lukaku turned the ball in at the near post from Thomas Meunier\u2019s low cross, and Leandro Trossard\u2019s ball into the box from \u200c\u200cdeep \u200c\u200cwas headed into the net by Tielemans.<\/p>\n
Those two had been involved in a heated exchange earlier in the match, but it was all smiles and hugs when the equaliser went in, before Tielemans was central again in the winner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tielemans\u2019s penalty late into stoppage time of extra time capped Belgium\u2019s comeback from 2-0 down in Seattle. Published…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25551,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,499,144,1857,87,1865,3206],"class_list":["post-25550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-belgium","tag-belgium","tag-football","tag-news","tag-sport","tag-united-states","tag-us-canada","tag-world-cup-2026"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@be\/116847532206562091","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25550\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}