Full Time
Belgium beat Senegal 3-2 after extra time in a round-of-32 turnaround nobody saw coming, hauling themselves back from 2-0 down with four minutes of normal time left. Habib Diarra and Ismaila Sarr had Senegal cruising until Romelu Lukaku pulled one back in the 86th minute and Youri Tielemans headed a leveller three minutes later to force extra time. Tielemans then won it from the penalty spot in the 125th minute, the latest goal in World Cup history, after a VAR check ruled Lamine Camara had fouled him — a decision Senegal will be fuming about for a while yet. Belgium go through to face the winner of USA vs Bosnia and Herzegovina in the last 16; Senegal are out, undone after doing almost everything right for 85 minutes.
Pre-match Talking Points
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1Belgium topped Group G after grinding out two draws and then putting five past New Zealand, so they arrive as one of the form teams of the round. Senegal barely made it here at all — they lost their first two games, to France and Norway, and only sneaked through as one of the better third-placed sides after hammering a ten-man Iraq 5-0. Lose this and Senegal's tournament, which was hanging by a thread anyway, is over; Belgium losing would be the bigger shock given how comfortably they've been finishing games.
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2These two don't have much shared history at World Cups, so there's no old grudge to lean on here. What Senegal do have is a miserable recent record against European opposition in this competition — they've lost their last four World Cup games against European teams, going back to the Netherlands and England in 2022 and now France and Norway this time. Belgium will know that stat too.
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3Keep an eye on Ismaïla Sarr for Senegal — he's been directly involved in four goals so far (three goals, one assist), which is the joint-most any Senegal player has managed in a single World Cup. For Belgium, Romelu Lukaku is still their all-time top scorer with 89 goals in 124 caps and has been picked despite a stop-start season with injuries at Napoli — if he's sharp, this is the sort of stage he's built for.
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4Senegal go into this without their first-choice goalkeeper: Edouard Mendy picked up a knee injury against Norway and has since left the camp entirely to be assessed by his club, so Mory Diaw takes over between the posts for a knockout match. That's a lot to ask of a deputy with the stakes this high.
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5This might be Sadio Mané's last World Cup, so there's a slightly poignant edge to Senegal's campaign regardless of what happens today — worth a nod even if you're only half-watching. On the numbers, it's genuinely one of the tightest ties of the round, so don't be surprised if this one goes right down to the wire.
Team Talking Points
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1Belgium's World Cup ran deeper than most — all the way to the quarterfinals, before losing 2-1 to Spain in Los Angeles on July 10. Fabián Ruiz put Spain ahead, Charles De Ketelaere equalised, and Mikel Merino's 88th-minute strike sent Belgium home. A genuinely good tournament ended on the smallest of margins.
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2The high point was the Round of 16 — a 4-1 demolition of co-hosts USA, with Charles De Ketelaere scoring twice. Beating a home team in the last 16, in front of its own fans, is exactly the kind of result that makes a tournament memorable.
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3Belgium's so-called golden generation — De Bruyne, Lukaku and company — has been fading for a few cycles now, so a quarterfinal run built around a new attacking focal point is a genuinely reassuring sign rather than a letdown, even in defeat to the team that went on to win it all.
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4Charles De Ketelaere is the name to know — scored in the Round of 16 rout of the USA and again in the quarterfinal against Spain, making him Belgium's most consistent attacking threat across the whole tournament.
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5Losing to Spain, who then went all the way to the final, is a defeat nobody would complain about. Belgium leave with their best run in years and a genuine successor to their aging core already delivering on the biggest stage.
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Top thing to say down the pub
Belgium go out in the quarterfinals to Spain by a single late goal, after De Ketelaere had just dragged them level — as exits go, that's about as good as losing gets.
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Avoid saying
Don't call this Belgium's golden generation's last stand — De Ketelaere just showed there's a next one, so 'the end of an era' undersells what was actually one of Belgium's better tournaments in years.
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1Senegal's tournament ended in the cruellest way possible: a 3-2 extra-time defeat to Belgium in the round of 32 on July 1, after leading 2-0 with five minutes left on the clock. Belgium scored twice in the last four minutes to force extra time, then won it with a stoppage-time penalty converted 124 minutes and 44 seconds in — the latest goal in World Cup history. It was the biggest comeback of the tournament, and Senegal were on the wrong end of it.
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2The high point came in their final group game — a 5-0 demolition of Iraq that made Senegal the first African team ever to score five goals in a single World Cup match, beating a record Algeria had held since 2014. It was exactly the kind of statement win they needed to scrape through as one of the best third-placed teams.
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3The Belgium collapse is the story that will sting for a while. Senegal were two goals up with the game basically won, then conceded twice in normal time before a VAR review — seven minutes long — awarded Belgium a penalty for a challenge deep in extra time. It's the kind of ending that invites a lot of second-guessing, and Senegal fans would be forgiven for still being annoyed about it.
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4Ismaila Sarr is the name to drop — the winger scored four goals across the tournament, including a brace against Norway and a beautifully taken chested finish against Belgium, and was arguably Senegal's most reliable outlet in every game they played. For a team that came within five minutes of the last 16, that kind of output from one player matters.
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5Senegal remain one of Africa's most consistent World Cup performers, and this is the sort of exit — agonisingly close, undone by a handful of minutes — that tends to fuel the next campaign rather than end it. There's no shame in losing the way they did; the shame, if there is any, belongs to whoever they concede stoppage-time penalties against next time.
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Top thing to say down the pub
Two goals up with five minutes left and somehow still lost in extra time to a penalty in the 125th minute — that's not a bad World Cup, that's a horror film.
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Avoid saying
"They bottled it" — Senegal were 2-0 up and unlucky, not bottling anything; save that phrase for a team that actually collapsed on its own terms, not one that got mugged by a stoppage-time VAR penalty.