Source: AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nSuddenly it was all Spain. They pinged passes around the Belgian half as though this World Cup quarter-final was a training exercise, laid on for an A-list crowd featuring Brad Pitt, Penelope Cruz and Noel Gallagher.<\/p>\n
But Belgium, having fought back astonishingly late from 2-0 down in the round-of-32 to dispatch Senegal, did not panic.<\/p>\n
They grabbed one back in the 41st minute. De Bruyne slid a through ball wide to Timothy Castagne. His cross found De Ketelaere, who perfectly timed his run and outmuscled Barcelona youngster Pau Cubarsi to head home.<\/p>\n
It was the first goal Spain had conceded this World Cup.<\/p>\n
Improbably, Belgium almost grabbed another before half-time. Breaking from a Spain corner, De Ketelaere\u2019s pass to a totally clear Doku was barely intercepted by Olmo.<\/p>\n
Yamal grew into the game after the break, nearly finding Mikel Oyarzabal with an incisive cross that was well blocked by a charging Courtois.<\/p>\n
Belgian coach Rudi Garcia brought on veteran striker Romelu Lukaku, who had scored from the bench in three straight games.<\/p>\n
The game opened up. A Belgian cross hit Rodri\u2019s arm but the impact was deemed accidental. Oyarzabal had a shot saved from a close, tight angle.<\/p>\n
A tearful Courtois was forced off by injury after 70 minutes. He was replaced by Lammens, the 24-year-old Manchester United \u2018keeper making his World Cup debut in daunting circumstances.<\/p>\n
It turned out to be a nightmare.<\/p>\n
In the 88th minute, Cubarsi shot low from range, and Lammens should have held onto the ball. Instead substitute Mikel Merino was first to the rebound, smashing it home.<\/p>\n
It was the Arsenal midfielder\u2019s second straight late winner from the bench, after he scored the crucial goal against Portugal in stoppage time on Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cMikel Merino is just one of those players who arrives at the right time, at the right moment in big games,\u201d Manchester United legend Wayne Rooney said on the BBC.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe details when you\u2019re a young defender, you\u2019re told to follow the ball in because this can happen.<\/p>\n
\u201cMistakes like that [Senne Lammens], and you\u2019re out of the tournament.\u201d<\/p>\n
Late on Alexis Saelemaekers rounded Unai, but was unable to find Lukaku in front of an open goal.<\/p>\n
As the whistle blow, Courtois came out to embrace a distraught Lammens, while other members of Belgium\u2019s ageing \u201cGolden Generation\u201d stood immobile and disbelieving.<\/p>\n
For Spain there were embraces and fist pumps, before attention quickly turns to their blockbuster clash with France.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course, is is fair to say that we have to work to try to beat France,\u201d Spain boss Luis de la Fuente said post-match. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe are not going to get preoccupied by their level. This game is no different, it is one incredible team against another incredible team.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Belgium goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois was in tears as he was forced to leave the pitch with injury before watching his replacement make as a blunder as Spain scored the goal that put them through to the World Cup semi-finals in Los Angeles. The European champions booked a final date with France with a 2-1 victory […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":252372,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6807],"tags":[156],"class_list":{"0":"post-252371","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leagues-cups","8":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252371\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}