00:00If you watched Senegal go two goals up on Belgium and called it a night, thinking the job was
00:05basically done, brace yourself. Because what happened while you were asleep might be the
00:10wildest 40 minutes of football this entire World Cup has given us. I am genuinely sorry you missed
00:16it live. But don't worry, I've got you covered. Let me walk you through exactly what went down.
00:22Start with what Pone Tiao got right. Edouard Mendy was carrying a knock, so the backup keeper had to
00:28step in between the posts. And honestly, the man looked like he'd stepped off a fashion shoot rather
00:34than out for a World Cup knockout tie. We'll circle back to why that mattered. In midfield, Tiao made
00:41the brave call to start Habib Diara, reshuffled his back line with Niakate and Sis through the middle
00:47instead of Koulibaly and Mamadou Saar, handed Jacobs the left-back spot, and pushed Iliman and Diay out
00:53to the right. On paper, that's a lot of changes for a knockout game. On the pitch, it looked inspired.
01:00Every single tweak gave Senegal more legs, more directness, and more of an actual outlet going
01:05forward. And it meant they were matching a European heavyweight punch for punch instead of sitting back
01:11and hoping. Now, I understand why people are already talking about an African nation lifting this trophy
01:17one day. But let's pump the brakes for a second. Reaching the last 16, even the quarterfinals,
01:23that's purely a footballing question. And plenty of these sides are clearly good enough for that
01:28conversation. Winning the whole tournament is an entirely different animal because the closing
01:34stages don't examine your touch or your shape. They examine your nerve. Can you hold your composure
01:40when the walls start closing in, when the crowd goes quiet and the clock is your enemy? That gap is
01:46still very real. And it's exactly why European sides keep finding a way through. Because they've
01:52stood in that fire before and lived to tell the story. Which brings us to Belgium, who were flat-out
01:58poor for most of that first half. Kevin de Brune looked a yard off the pace and didn't even make
02:03it
02:03to the hour mark. Trossard was a ghost. Doku couldn't get past his fullback and was hooked just past the
02:1055-minute
02:11mark. And Senegal made every bit of that count. The goal that summed up the whole afternoon came
02:17from Ismail Assar, chesting down a long ball out of defense with the calm of a man twice his experience
02:23before drilling it low past the keeper. It was one of those moments where you just knew this was
02:29Senegal's day. Except football loves punishing you the second you start believing that. Belgium's
02:35frustration spilled out everywhere. At one point, Trossard and Tielemans were nose-to-nose with each
02:41other. Which tells you plenty about the mood in that camp. Credit where it's due though. From around
02:46the 80th minute, Belgium started knocking on the door. Because sitting on a two-goal lead is a genuinely
02:53dangerous place to be. You get nervy, you retreat, and suddenly pressure alone starts doing the damage.
02:59Rudy Garcia's changes completely shifted the picture. Romelu Lukaku came on at the break and
03:06instantly gave Belgium a physical focal point they simply didn't have with De Quetalere leading the
03:11line. Then Dodi Lukakio arrived for his directness. Nicolas Roskin for his legs and his runs beyond.
03:19And later Diogo Moreira, who I have been begging Belgium to throw on all tournament, finally got his
03:25moment and looked every bit the answer. Lukaku pulled one back to make it 2-1, and suddenly
03:31Senegal's bench had a serious problem to solve. This is where I have to call out Pape Thiao, because his
03:37answer was to reinforce midfield, taking off Habib Diara and Pape Gueye for fresh legs, when what his
03:44side actually needed was size and power at the back. Mamadou Saar sat on that bench the entire time,
03:50a proper physical unit who could have gone shoulder to shoulder with Lukaku, and Thiao simply refused to
03:56use him. Senegal actually should have killed the game off before any of that mattered too.
04:01Gueye had a glorious chance to make it 3-1 and side-footed it wide when it looked easier to
04:07score,
04:07and 30 seconds later, Belgium made them pay for that miss. A cross was whipped into the box. The
04:13keeper, yes, our fashion shoot friend from the start of this, threw himself at it, trying to punch it clear,
04:19and missed the ball completely, and Telemans rose above everyone to nod home the equalizer in the
04:2589th minute. 2-2, and Senegal's hearts were shattered. It's harsh, it's unfortunate, but football does not
04:32deal in sympathy. If you cannot see out 90 minutes and beyond, the game will always find you out,
04:38and Senegal only have themselves to blame for that collapse. Now let's get into that penalty,
04:43because deep into extra time, in the 120th minute plus 5, the officials pointed to the spot after the
04:50longest VAR check of the tournament so far. My first look, I thought no chance, barely any contact there.
04:57But the second angle tells a different story. The defender's trailing leg clips Telemans right as he shifts his
05:04weight to control the ball, throwing him completely off balance. Technically, that is a foul, and yes,
05:10that is a penalty. Harsh as it feels for Senegal. Here's the best part, though. Every single camera
05:16in that stadium was locked onto Lukaku. The broadcast graphics even flagged him as the likely taker.
05:22And then, calm as anything, Lukaku rolls it across to Telemans, who steps up and buries the coldest
05:29penalty you will see all year. That right there is what experience buys you. The composure to manage a
05:35moment like that instead of just surviving it. Let's move to the other knockout tie, because England
05:40against DR Congo deserves its own spotlight, and not purely for the football. Congo are currently
05:47living through a genuine humanitarian crisis back home. Unrest, an Ebola outbreak, entire communities
05:54under real strain, and yet 26 players gave their country 90 minutes worth remembering forever. This was
06:01Congo's first ever knockout appearance in their history, and inside seven minutes they were ahead
06:06through Sapanga, stunning one of the tournament favorites. Honestly, for 90 minutes, I just hoped
06:12this whole country could put everything else down and celebrate a team that gave absolutely everything
06:18for a shirt that means more than most of us will ever understand. Not every battle needs to be won
06:24to
06:24matter. Sometimes it just needs someone brave enough to show up and fight it. Their goalkeeper,
06:29Lionel Mpazi, produced one of the great individual displays of this World Cup, somehow keeping out two
06:36Jude Bellingham headers that looked destined for the net. Bellingham actually walked over and hugged him
06:42afterward, still in disbelief. England were sloppy for long spells of that first half too, Madueke kept
06:49getting shut down, the passing was loose, and they still somehow carved out five clear-cut chances and
06:55missed every single one, with Jed Spence given a torrid time down the flank by Sapanga's pace. But
07:01Klass told eventually, England became the first side since 1966 to concede first in a World Cup match,
07:09and still come away with the win, and Harry Kane led that fight back. Here is a man who was
07:14told as a
07:15kid he was too heavy to make it, rejected by Arsenal's academy, and he is now England's top scorer at
07:21this
07:21tournament. His anger at a first-half penalty shout, that I personally think the referee got right,
07:27no penalty, poured straight into a thunderous second goal. Anthony Gordon became the first player in World
07:34Cup history to come off the bench and register two assists in a single match, the first teeing up Kane's
07:40header, the second a gorgeous inside cut, finished off with a backheel into Kane's path. Declan Rice adapted
07:47brilliantly at right-back, and Elliot Anderson ran that second half beautifully. Every question aimed
07:54at Thomas Tuchel about leaving out Foden, Lewis Hall, Maguire, or Trent will keep coming until England
08:00actually go and win this thing. But results like this make his choices very hard to argue with.
08:06Congo, to their enormous credit, had Wissa somehow miss a simple tap-in while they were still leading 1-0,
08:13a chance that would have made it 2-0, and a reminder of just how thin these margins really are.
08:19Drop your take in the comments below, that Telemans penalty and that denied Kane shout,
08:25consistent officiating or not. Our Portugal preview is up now too if you want to get ahead of the next
08:30round. England face Mexico after that, and trust me, you will not want to miss either one. Like the
08:37video, subscribe if you're new here, and I will catch you in the next one.
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