SEATTLE – At the 85th minute of Belgium’s round-of-32 match at Seattle Stadium, the oldest squad at the 2026 World Cup was two goals down against Senegal, without Kevin De Bruyne and Jérémy Doku, who had both come off at the hour mark, and four minutes from elimination. That is not a position from which teams recover. Belgium recovered.
Youri Tielemans struck the winning penalty at 124 minutes and 44 seconds into the match, the latest goal ever recorded in a men’s World Cup game, picking out the top corner past a goalkeeper filling in for the injured Édouard Mendy, who had missed the entire knockout stage with a knee injury. The final score: Belgium 3, Senegal 2 after extra time. The margin between a Belgian round-of-16 berth and an early exit was four minutes of normal time and a foul at the edge of the penalty area in the 117th minute.
Senegal earned their lead methodically. Habib Diarra opened the scoring in the 25th minute and Ismaïla Sarr doubled it in the 51st, both goals arriving against a Belgian side that had lost its attacking shape when De Bruyne and Doku came off together in the 56th minute, with the reasons for both departures left unclarified by manager Rudi Garcia in his post-match comments, Sky Sports reported. The African side struck the woodwork twice in normal time, missing the chance to make the lead more comfortable, and the match entered its final minutes looking settled.
Romelu Lukaku, introduced from the bench in the second half, changed the logic of the final five minutes. He pulled one back in the 86th minute to make it 2-1, finishing through the goalkeeper with the kind of composure that Lukaku produces at this level regardless of how little game time precedes the moment. Three minutes later, Leandro Trossard, who had created more chances than any other player at the 2026 World Cup, produced the assist for Tielemans’ equalizer in the 89th minute. Belgium had scored twice in three minutes. The match went to extra time.
What Senegal had produced over 85 minutes was enough to win nearly every match they would be asked to play at this tournament. That it was not enough speaks to a particular cruelty in knockout football, and to the specific quality of what Tielemans produced in the final minutes of normal time and again in extra time when the outcome was still genuinely unresolved, ESPN reported. Senegal had become the first African team to score ten goals in a single World Cup edition. The record stands. The result does not reflect the performance.
Extra time began with Belgium carrying momentum they could not immediately translate into territory. The contest reached the 117th minute unresolved, when Lamine Camara slid in on Tielemans as the ball crossed the face of goal. A seven-minute VAR review followed. The referee pointed to the spot, and Tielemans drove the penalty into the top corner past the backup goalkeeper, past any further argument, and into the record books.
“Being part of this comeback is a proud moment,” he said afterward. “I scored the last two goals to give the team the win today. I’m very proud to be able to help the team bring us over the line.” At 124 minutes and 44 seconds, Tielemans had scored the latest winning goal in the history of the men’s World Cup.
The historical comparison the comeback invites is specific. Belgium became the first team to recover from two goals down to win a World Cup knockout tie since their own comeback at the 2018 World Cup against Japan, also 3-2 in extra time, also from the identical deficit. Only West Germany had previously managed two such recoveries in World Cup knockout history, in 1954 against Hungary and in 1970 against England. Belgium’s name now appears on that list twice.
Garcia’s side advance to face the United States, who beat Bosnia-Herzegovina 2-0 on the same night, in the round of 16 on July 6 at Lumen Field. Harry Kane broke Pelé’s all-time World Cup goals record in Atlanta the same evening, resetting the tournament’s individual narrative alongside Belgium’s team one. For Garcia, the question that precedes the USA is one he could not answer in Seattle: De Bruyne came off before the hour mark, and his fitness for the round of 16 has not been confirmed.
Belgium leave Seattle with the most dramatic comeback in this tournament and the latest winning goal in World Cup history on their record. Whether they leave the United States with a trophy depends on whether De Bruyne can be part of what comes next.
