{"id":25578,"date":"2026-07-02T02:10:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T02:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/25578\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T02:10:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T02:10:11","slug":"belgium-stage-stunning-comeback-to-sink-senegal-in-extra-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/25578\/","title":{"rendered":"Belgium stage stunning comeback to sink Senegal in extra time"},"content":{"rendered":"

Senegal’s Iliman Ndiaye (13) pulls Belgium’s Romelu Lukaku (9) during the World Cup round of 32 soccer match between Belgium and Senegal in Seattle, July 1, 2026. (PHOTO \/ AP)<\/p>\n

SEATTLE – Youri Tielemans struck a 125th-minute penalty as Belgium rallied from \u200btwo goals down and defeated Senegal 3-2 after extra time in their World Cup last 32 clash in Seattle on Wednesday \u200cto keep alive their title hopes that had looked dead and buried.<\/p>\n

Senegal’s Lamine Camara slid in on Tielemans as the ball flashed across the face of goal and conceded the spot kick after a video assistant referee review, with the Belgian picking out the top corner to complete an extraordinary comeback.<\/p>\n

Habib Diarra and \u200bIsmaila Sarr had given Senegal a deserved 2-0 lead and they looked to be cruising through to the next round \u200bbefore Belgium netted twice in the final four minutes through Romelu Lukaku and a Tielemans header to \u2060force extra time.<\/p>\n

Belgium now face the winner of Wednesday\u2019s last 32 clash between co-hosts United States and Bosnia and Herzegovina in the \u200bnext round in Seattle on Monday.<\/p>\n

Belgium’s Youri Tielemans (8) scores their second goal during the World Cup round of 32 soccer match between Belgium and Senegal in Seattle, July 1, 2026. (PHOTO \/ AP)<\/p>\n

Lukaku looked set to take the penalty but at the last minute handed the ball to captain Tielemans.<\/p>\n

“We \u200btalked for a while. Romelu said, ‘take it’. And I was ready to take it,” Tielemans told Sporza.<\/p>\n

“I am very proud to be captain of this team. We are all winners and try to do our best. Whether we will analyse this match tomorrow? I hope the day after tomorrow, first a day \u200boff!”<\/p>\n

The midfielder believed it was the players off the bench who made the difference.<\/p>\n

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“We fell behind and then it’s up to us to \u200btry to show a reaction. We did,” he said. “It was the bench players who made the difference again, especially for that first goal. Everyone gives \u200ceverything and \u2060sometimes it works better than other times.”<\/p>\n

Belgium’s Timothy Castagne (21) and Senegal’s Ismail Jakobs (14) compete for the ball during the World Cup round of 32 soccer match between Belgium and Senegal in Seattle, July 1, 2026. (PHOTO \/ AP)<\/p>\n

It was cruel on Senegal, who controlled much of the 90 minutes and also struck the woodwork twice, but could not see out the game.<\/p>\n

When they broke the deadlock in the 25th minute it was no surprise. Sadio Mane’s cross was headed goalwards by Sarr, but his effort came off the post again.<\/p>\n

This time the loose ball fell kindly for Diarra, and he \u200bside-footed home from seven yards.<\/p>\n

Lukaku \u200bon at halftime<\/p>\n

Belgium brought on \u2060Lukaku for the ineffective Charles De Ketelaere at halftime, but were soon 2-0 down.<\/p>\n

A stunning long pass from Moussa Niakhate was brilliantly controlled on the chest of Sarr, who held off two defenders before \u200bthundering the ball into the net in the 51st minute.<\/p>\n

Belgium struggled to create clear-cut chances until the \u200bfinal five minutes, \u2060and almost out of nowhere turned the game on its head.<\/p>\n

Belgium’s Diego Moreira (19) receives the ball during the World Cup round of 32 soccer match between Belgium and Senegal in Seattle, July 1, 2026. (PHOTO \/ AP)<\/p>\n

First Lukaku turned the ball in at the near post from Thomas Meunier’s low cross and Leandro Trossard’s ball into the box from deep was headed into the net by Tielemans.<\/p>\n

Those two had been involved in a heated \u2060exchange earlier \u200bin the match but it was all smiles and hugs when the equalizer went \u200bin, before Tielemans was central again in the winner.<\/p>\n

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“I believe that our team deserved it (to win),” Senegal coach Pape Thiaw said. “Unfortunately, we are eliminated. I’m extremely sad, so \u200bare the players. They did deserve the win but it didn’t work out in our favor today.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Senegal’s Iliman Ndiaye (13) pulls Belgium’s Romelu Lukaku (9) during the World Cup round of 32 soccer match…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25579,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,499,4570,3934,1849],"class_list":["post-25578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-belgium","tag-belgium","tag-football","tag-senegal","tag-soccer","tag-world-cup"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@be\/116847957006591855","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25578","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=25578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25578\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}