{"id":25732,"date":"2026-07-02T12:19:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T12:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/25732\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T12:19:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T12:19:10","slug":"controversial-penalty-ends-senegals-fifa-world-cup-run-against-belgium-world-cup-2026-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/25732\/","title":{"rendered":"Controversial penalty ends Senegal\u2019s FIFA World Cup run against Belgium | World Cup 2026 News"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Al Jazeera staff and AP<\/p>\n

Published On 2 Jul 20262 Jul 2026<\/p>\n

The penalty awarded against the Senegalese national team in the final moments of their match against Belgium on Wednesday caused widespread controversy after it led to their elimination from the Round of 32 at the 2026 World Cup, in a harsh turn of events that saw the \u201cLions of Teranga\u201d go from leading 2-0 to losing 3-2.<\/p>\n

Honduran referee Said Martinez awarded a penalty kick at the end of the second period of extra time, after a VAR review, following a challenge by Senegal\u2019s Lamine Camara on Belgian captain Youri Tielemans, with the score tied 2-2 and the match heading towards a penalty shootout.<\/p>\n

The \u201cArchivo VAR\u201d platform, which specialises in analysing refereeing decisions, said that VAR intervened excessively during the match, confirming that it was Tielemans who extended his foot in front of Camara, causing the contact.<\/p>\n

The platform added, via its account<\/a> on \u201cX,\u201d that the incident did not warrant VAR intervention, explaining that it was the Belgian player who forced the contact entirely, and that the situation did not amount to the clear and obvious error needed to justify the referee reviewing the decision.<\/p>\n

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The decision triggered a wave of controversy on social media, with one fan writing: \u201cThis is 100% robbery. Senegal have been robbed. How is this a penalty? Belgium do not deserve to go through corruption.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sports content creator Sneako blamed the result on match \u2018\u201drigging\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cRigged! Senegal should storm the pitch right now. Leave the pitch and go home. This is rigged!\u201d<\/p>\n

Another sports fan wrote: \u201cI\u2019m sorry, but this was never a penalty. Camara went to clear the ball, but it was Tielemans who got in his way. Senegal was robbed, and it should have been Belgium going out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spanish sports journalist Manolo Lama commented<\/a>: \u201cThey stole the Africa Cup of Nations from them, and now they\u2019re stealing all the solidarity with Senegal at the World Cup too.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SenegalSenegal\u2019s Habib Diarra, front, celebrates scoring their first goal with Ismail Jakobs, back, during the World Cup round of 32 soccer match between Belgium and Senegal in Seattle, Wednesday, July 1, 2026. (AP Photo\/Abbie Parr) (AP)<\/p>\n

Egyptian journalist Mohamed Saeed linked<\/a> the incident to what happened in the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations final against Morocco, writing: \u201cYou can feel that the penalty awarded against Senegal in the final seconds was a harsh lesson and a difficult test. After the scenes from the Africa Cup of Nations final, I think that if it weren\u2019t for the change in the rules around the withdrawal incident, this scene could have repeated itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another sports fan, Fares Ahmed, wrote<\/a> that football \u201dteaches lessons\u201d and the outcome brought back the memory of Senegal at the tournament in Morocco.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey took advantage of the tournament\u2019s vulnerable position and the host\u2019s need to make it a success, and used that to impose their pressure,\u201d Ahmed wrote. \u201cToday, the scene was almost repeated against Belgium \u2014 a penalty in the final minutes, objections, and disbelief over the decision \u2014 but this time there was no threat of withdrawal, because you can\u2019t risk penalties like that in a tournament the size of the World Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n

Drawing a connection between the two events, one follower wrote<\/a> on \u201cX\u201d: \u201cWhen there was a clear penalty in the Morocco final, they rebelled against the decision and tarnished the reputation of African football, just because the tournament was in Morocco. But when an unclear penalty came along that eliminated them from the World Cup, they stayed silent, because this time it was in the West.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SenegalSenegal\u2019s Pathe Ciss #6 kneels on the pitch after Belgium were awarded a penalty during the World Cup Round of 32 match in Seattle, on Wednesday, July 1, 2026 [Maddy Grassy\/AP Photo]<\/p>\n

After the dramatic penalty was awarded, Tielemans stepped up to take it and scored successfully, netting Belgium\u2019s third goal and capping off an unexpected comeback that eliminated the Lions of Teranga.<\/p>\n

But back on the pitch, Senegal had the run of play for 85 minutes. The African team held a two-goal lead, and had all but secured a spot in the round of 16 at the World Cup.<\/p>\n

Within five minutes, it crumbled and the players were feeling it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were at the heart of writing the beautiful pages of the history of our football in this world,\u201d defender Krepin Diatta said. \u201cAnd we have to accept that we failed at our mission.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senegal midfielder Habib Diarra said. \u201cWe had a good first half, but it wasn\u2019t enough. A match lasts 90 minutes, and we\u2019re devastated. It\u2019s very tough. I don\u2019t know what to say. When you\u2019re on the pitch, you have to give your all, and that\u2019s not what we did. We\u2019ve only got ourselves to blame.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Al Jazeera staff and AP Published On 2 Jul 20262 Jul 2026 The penalty awarded against the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25733,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[418,14743,7,14744,69,499,3121,487,948,144,417,4570,279,1857,3206],"class_list":["post-25732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-belgium","tag-africa","tag-africa-cup-of-nations","tag-belgium","tag-el-salvador","tag-europe","tag-football","tag-latin-america","tag-middle-east","tag-morocco","tag-news","tag-opinions","tag-senegal","tag-social-media","tag-sport","tag-world-cup-2026"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@be\/116850351611556554","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25732","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=25732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}