After a dramatic 3-2 defeat to Belgium on Monday night, Japan are out of the World Cup. Belgium scored the winner through Nacer Chadli deep into stoppage time to break the hearts of Yuya Osako and his teammates. The new Werder signing started for the third time at this World Cup, making his fourth appearance in total, and played the full 90 minutes.
Japan took a 2-0 lead shortly after the half-time break through Genki Haraguchi and Takashi Inui, who both scored in a dizzying four minutes of football. Belgium however, dusted themselves down and responded with a four-minute double whammy of their own: In the 70th minute Vertongen pulled one back before Fellaini made it all square in the 74th. The final blow was not delivered until the 94th minute of the game, the final moments of stoppage time, when Nacer Chadli completed a counterattack to send Japan home.
With the Samurai Blue’s World Cup dreams over, Belgium will face five times World Cup winners Brazil on Friday at 20:00 CEST in the quarterfinals.
