Garcia revels in Belgium’s World Cup ‘remontada’ against Senegal

Belgium must use their World Cup "remontada" against Senegal as fuel for the rest of their campaign in North America, so says head coach Rudi Garcia. Garcia watched on as Belgium booked their place in the last 16 with an extra-time victory at Seattle Stadium, with Romelu Lukaku and Youri Tielemans emerging as the heroes. The Red Devils appeared set for another disappointing early exit as strikes from Habib Diarra and Ismaila Sarr had Senegal two goals ahead until the 86th minute. However, two goals in three minutes from Lukaku and Tielemans forced extra time, and penalties seemed imminent until the fifth minute of stoppage time in the second half. Lamine Camara was penalized for a foul inside the box on Tielemans following a VAR review, leading to Belgium's captain stepping up and converting the resulting spot-kick. Tielemans' winning penalty marked the latest goal ever scored in World Cup history at 124:44.

Belgium also trailed 2-0 as late as the 85th minute, a notable feat as it stands as the latest in a World Cup game where a team has trailed by 2+ goals and avoided defeat. Garcia urged his players to savor their triumph ahead of the next round, stating, "I arrived 18 months ago because I believe that there's quality in this team. It's not the best of all time, but tonight we wrote history. We didn't win anything; we qualified for the round of 16, and we'll see who we're going to face. It doesn't matter who it’s going to be. Now we're going to savor our victory and our 'remontada.'"

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Belgium are the first side to win a World Cup match after trailing by 2+ goals since their own victory against Japan in 2018. They are only the second team to win two such matches in the competition, joining Germany against Hungary in 1954 and England in 1970. Despite the win, Belgium was second-best for much of the contest, managing an expected goals (xG) total of 1.74 from 19 shots compared to Senegal's 3.58 from the same number of attempts. Garcia's side scored with both of their shots on target in the second half of this game, with the two goals coming just 159 seconds apart.

"Football is emotions. We had plenty," Garcia added. "When you're down 2-0 in the 83rd minute, it's never easy to come back and win the match. But this is what I said to the players at the hydration break: we had to score the third goal in the match and then anything is possible. We did it, we delivered, and then they opened up the game again. It is a scenario that can make the group grow even stronger and tighter together and realize that up until the match is not finished, until the final whistle, a lot of things can happen as we just demonstrated today."

For Senegal, meanwhile, their hopes of just a second World Cup win in the knockout stages were snatched away in dramatic fashion. They fell just short of a potential tie against co-hosts the United States, though Senegal did become the first African team to score 10 goals in a single edition of the World Cup. Senegal boss Pape Thiaw described the result as a "cruel defeat" for his players but disagreed with the awarding of the late Tielemans penalty. "It was a cruel defeat. We played well and were leading 2-0. But a football match doesn't last 85 minutes. Belgium came back, and we couldn't deal with that. We also had our chances, but we have to congratulate Belgium because they qualified. When the penalty was awarded, we had our own interpretation. We didn't think it was a penalty. Our players questioned the decision because they believed they had the right to do so. Belgium scored from it, and that goal knocked us out.

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