Nacer Chadli’s dramatic 94th-minute winner — going from one end to the other in 9.94 seconds — completed an incredible Marouane Fellaini-inspired comeback to break Japanese hearts.
Belgium, the huge favourites, had looked down and out at 2-0 down thanks to goals from Genki Haraguchi and Takashi Inui at the start of the second half. But the arrival of second-half substitute Fellaini turned the game around.
Jan Vertonghen started the fightback with a looping header for 2-1 before Fellaini made it 2-2 with 16 minutes to go.
Then, with only seconds remaining on the clock. Chadli arrived at the end of a classy breakaway move to clinch a quarter-final against Brazil.
What will hurt Japan the most is that the winner came so soon after Thibaut Courtois had saved a Keisuke Honda free-kick which almost won the game for his team.
But from the corner that followed, the Chelsea goalkeeper rolled the ball out to Kevin De Bruyne ,who ran half the length of the field in a classic counter-attack which ended with Chadli gleefully firing home from a Thomas Meunier cross after Romelu Lukaku had dummied.
‘Well that’s what happens in the World Cup!’ said Belgium boss Roberto Martinez. ‘You get pushed in games and you have to congratulate Japan. They were so solid, frustrated us and good on the counter.
‘You have to see a reaction of the subs coming on and to win the game 3-2 in 90 minutes tells you everything about this group of players.
‘Today was about getting through, we did that and it’s a day to be proud of these players. Keep believing.
‘Sometimes in a World Cup you want to be perfect but in the knockout stage it’s about winning. The boys showed a winning mentality today.’
-Dailymail