{"id":28102,"date":"2026-07-10T19:21:28","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T19:21:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/28102\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T19:21:28","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T19:21:28","slug":"belgium-forced-into-last-minute-team-change-after-youri-tielemans-injury-blow-before-spain-clash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/28102\/","title":{"rendered":"Belgium forced into last-minute team change after Youri Tielemans injury blow before Spain clash"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Belgium<\/a> have been forced into a last-minute team change ahead of their World Cup quarter-final against Spain<\/a> after Youri Tielemans was forced out of the starting XI due to injury.<\/p>\n

Red Devils captain Tielemans was set to start alongside Nicolas Raskin in the middle of the park but was replaced by Club Brugge<\/a> midfielder Hans Vanaken just 12 minutes before kick-off.<\/p>\n

Belgium confirmed on their social media: \u201cFollowing an injury during the warm-up, Youri Tielemans is replaced in the starting XI by Hans Vanaken.\u201d<\/p>\n

The specific nature of the injury has not been confirmed but it has been reported that Tielemans has picked up a hamstring issue.<\/p>\n

\"YouriYouri Tielemans will watch on from the sidelines for Belgium’s quarter-final against Spain (Getty)<\/p>\n

Tielemans has been integral in Belgium reaching the World Cup\u2019s last-eight, with his clutch performance against Senegal<\/a> in the round of 32 saving his country from elimination.<\/p>\n

After Romelu Lukaku halved Senegal\u2019s two-goal advantage in the 86th minute, Tielemans came up with an equaliser a minute from time. He then slotted home a last-gasp penalty in the fifth minute of extra-time stoppages, breaking Senegalese hearts and setting up a last-16 tie against co-hosts USA.<\/p>\n

Tielemans played the full match in Seattle as Belgium overcame pre-match controversy surrounding Folarin Balogun\u2019s ban being suspended<\/a>, dominating the USA to a 4-1 victory<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Vanaken, meanwhile, came off the bench in that clash and was the beneficiary of a clown show at the back by the Americans, with goalkeeper Matt Freese dispossessed before the 33-year-old fired into an open net from range.<\/p>\n

\"HansHans Vanaken has come in for the injured Tielemans (Reuters)<\/p>\n

He later got an assist to set up Lukaku\u2019s 93rd-minute goal, adding salt to the US wounds.<\/p>\n

Kevin De Bruyne and Jeremy Doku were left out of the USA tie but returned to the line-up to face Spain, who reached the quarter-finals by beating Portugal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The winner of the clash in Los Angeles will face France after Didier Deschamps\u2019 side beat Morocco<\/a> on Thursday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28103,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[15640,7,4988,10435,13827,15636,6234,5731,3933,5693,6229,13652,6237,15641,6243,15638,6241,15637,6235,15639,3934,13651,116,15507,15642,1857,15635,2833,13852,5404],"class_list":["post-28102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-belgium","tag-arts-culture-and-entertainment","tag-belgium","tag-belgium-national-soccer-team","tag-belgium-national-team","tag-california","tag-city-of-los-angeles","tag-color-image","tag-fifa","tag-fifa-world-cup","tag-fifa-world-cup-2026","tag-horizontal","tag-inglewood","tag-international-team-soccer","tag-lining-up-sports-activity","tag-match-sport","tag-national-anthem","tag-national-team","tag-number-8","tag-photography","tag-quarterfinal-round","tag-soccer","tag-sofi-stadium","tag-spain","tag-spain-national-soccer-team","tag-spain-national-team","tag-sport","tag-team-photo","tag-usa","tag-world-sports-championship","tag-youri-tielemans"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28102","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=28102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}