Belgium Wins Against Japan With an Amazing Comeback That's Now a World Cup Classic
Belgium has stunned Japan in a hard-fought comeback to earn one of the last spots in the FIFA 2018 quarterfinals. The Belgium national team trailed by 2–0 before mounting an inspired comeback right at the 94-minute mark.
Viewers tuning into the match around 52 minutes in would have seen Belgium held scoreless by Japan, which was leading by two points by them. A quick series of goals, however, put the Belgian team over the top in a surprising turnaround that shocked fans.
Jan Vertonghen put up a goal to bring the Belgians behind by one, which was soon converted into a tie game by Marouane Fellaini.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
By the 94th minute, it was Nacer Chadli who decided the win for Belgium with a goal, as recapped by BBC. The last team who was able to pull off an upset after trailing by two goals in a knockout round match was Germany, which pulled off the feat against England from way back in 1970.
Japan was, for a good part of the match, looking set to run away with the win after Genki Haraguchi pushed in a long ball from Gaku Shibasaki. An accurate 25-yard strike from Takashi Inui opened the lead to 2–0, as comfortable as could be expected at this stage.
Two quick goals from Belgium, however, proved that anything can happen in football's biggest stage. It was the last kick of the game that eventually turned the tables in Belgium's favor, in what is now one of the biggest closing minutes in this year's FIFA World Cup so far.
Belgium is now facing Brazil this coming quarter-finals round, with their meeting set for Friday, July 6.
"Belgium had to dig deep from within and they did it so well," Chris Sutton of BBC Radio 5 commented about the ultra tight match. "Belgium are not going to have a harder game than this all tournament. They were in a real scrap," he added.
