5 Things we learned from Belgium’s unbelievable comeback over Senegal
Where do I even start with this one? I’ve got to be honest I’m still in kind of disbelief that Belgium have actually managed to go through in this tie, Senegal started the stronger side and hit the post early on after Courtois attempted to punch a cross but the ball fell to Ismaila Sarr who couldn’t stretch far enough to get good contact on the ball so hit the post, ten minutes later Sarr hit the post again this time with a header but the ball fell kindly to Habib Diarra who put Senegal 1-0 up in the 24th minute. Senegal continued to look the stronger team throughout the game and grabbed a second early in the second half as Moussa Niakhate launched a long ball over the top to the on-running Ismaila Sarr who took the ball down brilliantly and fired past Courtois to double Senegal’s lead five minutes into the second half, as the half wore on it looked like Belgium had no hope of getting back into the game as Rudi Garcia even took of Jeremy Doku and Kevin De Bruyne early into the second half. Just when Senegal thought they were nearly home and dry Belgium pulled one back in the 85th minute as two Belgium substitutes Thomas Meunier and Romelu Lukaku linked up with Belgium’s all-time top scorer nipping in at the near-post to give the Belgians hope late on, out of nowhere just three minutes later Belgium equalised after Trossard’s cross was turned home by Tielemans after the Senegal keeper Diaw missed his punch. Onto extra-time we go, still can’t really believe Senegal let this one slip.
Was it a penalty or not? There’s been pretty big debates around this incident and you can understand why when the stakes are as big as they were in the last minute of a World Cup knockout game, I can definitely see both sides first of all for Belgium Youri Tielemans does get in front of Camara who catches the back of his foot which then brings him down. I can also understand Senegal’s point of view where Camara only has eyes on the ball and is Tielemans even going to get a shot away? They can also argue over whether or not it’s a clear and obvious error from the referee but VAR deemed it a clear error so sent the ref to the monitor who obviously wasn’t convinced because he took his time at the screen eventually awarding a penalty, in my opinion I do think it’s a penalty but I can understand why Senegal feel aggrieved. Tielemans stepped up and slotted an unbelievable penalty in the circumstances to send Belgium through to the Round of 16.
I cannot believe Belgium have made it through. For 85 minutes Belgium were absolutely hopeless and were going out of the World Cup with a whimper in what’s going to be a lot of these players last tournaments, then out of nowhere they get one back and Senegal crumble under the pressure which is so unlike this team. After Rudi Garcia took off De Bruyne and Doku in the 56th minute I thought it was a wrap but they somehow clawed victory from the jaws of defeat in extra-time, there are still massive issues all over this Belgium team particularly in defence where they look so slow and got badly exposed for Senegal’s second goal with one ball over the top unlocking the entire defence. I can’t understand why Lukaku didn’t start as despite barely playing any football this year he’s still by far and away their best striker and showed it when he came on, Garcia won’t be making that mistake again. Overall Belgium have made it through but I think it was more a case of Senegal losing the game rather than Belgium winning it, in the World Cup it doesn’t matter how you get through.
There’ll be a few sleepless nights ahead for Senegal. For 85 minutes you could see that there was a clear discrepancy between the two teams with Senegal looking the far better side scoring two great goals in addition to creating a hatful more that would have put the game to bed long before Belgium’s comeback started, Ismaila Sarr was absolutely superb in that attack today and could have had a hat-trick as he hit the post twice in addition to the brilliant goal he scored. I suppose you can always concede one to this Belgium team but that second goal is criminal from a Senegal perspective, the goalkeeper just completely misjudged the cross and let Tielemans of all people score a header to equalise and even from there you expect Senegal to compose themselves in extra-time. They brought Nicolas Jackson on for extra-time in addition to Pape Mate Sarr, Ibrahim Mbaye and Lamine Camara who came on earlier but they just couldn’t find any rhythm in extra-time and looked resigned to going to a penalty shootout only for Camara to concede a stupid penalty in the 120th minute to just kill Senegal. Drama just seems to follow this Senegal side and this one will take a long time to get over, what could have been for Senegal?
Who will Belgium be facing in the next round? Up next for Belgium will be either the USA or Bosnia and Herzegovina who play later on tonight but you’d imagine it’ll be the USA based on what we’ve seen so far in this tournament, the two sides did actually face each other back in March in a friendly where Belgium came out on top 5-2 winners in the end but much has changed since then. The USA have looked brilliant so far in this World Cup and I’d imagine they’ll be fairly confident of overcoming this Belgium team as the home side, Belgium will have to greatly improve if they want any chance of going to the quarter-finals but you’d have to imagine they will. Who do you have going through if it is to be the USA vs Belgium? I have the USA right now.