Belgium produced a fantastic comeback to knock Japan out of the World Cup in Rostov-on-Don on Monday. They will now face Brazil in the last eight, Sputnik reports.
Japan's squad has taken off in the second half with two spectacular goals in a row. Japan's Genki Haraguchi stunned Belgium in the 48th minute when he capitalized on a poor mistake by Belgium defender Jan Vertonghen and fired the ball past the goalkeeper. Takashi Inui scored a beautiful goal just four minutes later, as he arrowed his shot into the net to put his side two goals ahead.
Belgium defender Jan Vertonghen atoned for his earlier error with an excellent header from an acute angle with 20 minutes to go. Just four minutes later, Belgium drew level. Eden Hazard produced a fine cross from the left flank and Fellaini was on hand to send a powerful header past Eiji Kawashima.
The game looked set for extra-time, however, as the seconds ticked down, Belgium winger Nacer Chadli scored a dramatic winner.
Midfielder Gaku Shibasaki has received a yellow card in the 39th minute after lunging at Eden Hazard.
While Belgium won all three of their group-stage games, Japan was the runner-up in Group H. The winner of the match will meet Brazil, which beat Mexico 2-0, in quarterfinals.
Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders was attending the game against Japan, according to an announcement made by the Foreign Ministry's press service.
Belgium won all three of their group-stage games, 3-0 in a game with Panama, 1-0 in a game with England and destroyed Tunisia 5-2. In its turn, Japan beat Colombia 2-0 and finished runners-up in their group ahead of Senegal on fair play points because the African side received more yellow card throughout the tournament, having the same number of points and the same goal difference.
The national teams of Belgium and Japan played last time in 2002, the game ended in a draw 2-2.