Freaking Belgian defense gust standing around. The Brazilians closed down everything in the box. If Belgium lose it will because of horrible coaching by Martinez.
What a strange game. After 30 mins, it just looked like just a question of how many Belgium would win by. Great fun, though.
Wow, was not expecting that. Well done Japan though. That second goal was a cracker and Kagawa having a really good game.
Mind you…if (IF!!!) Belgium pull this out of the fire then I back them to win the whole thing.
I’m not watching this game, but it did strike me that Martinez is going with a Back 3, and all of them are aging to some degree. It worked in the group stages, but seems to have caught up with him. Looking at the match stats, it appears to be an even game but stats can be deceptive.
Things turned around fast. I love Japan but this WC is better off having Belgium go through.
8-foot-7-inch Fellaini ties it up!
If this goes into overtime, I expect both teams to keep on pushing, as opposed to the snoozefests yesterday.
ETA: and now this notion is obsolete…
Heartbreaking loss for Japan.
But great match, maybe even better than FRA-ARG. Hats off to Japan, I didn’t expect such strong opposition against Belgium.
What a game! The Brazil-Belgium qf should be a classic and the winner may well take the whole thing.
Especially sad because they’ve shown a ton of heart throughout this whole tournament.
Their goalie is legit.
I watched the last 25 minutes and Japan actually looked more threatening until the very end. I hope Martinez keeps the same formation versus Brazil. I already took a half day on Friday to watch that one!
More games like Belgium-Japan and nothing that resembles yesterday please.
A true rollercoaster ride…
Now Brazil-Belgium will be THE game of the QF’s, a top referee will be assigned to it, and Neymar’s theatrics will hopefully finally be punished.
After the Belgium win (and I count on them), I would love to see the whole Belgium team doing a victory celebration by rolling Neymar style over the field.
I think Sweden v Switzerland will be a tactically conservative match like yesterday’s Croatia win. Neither will mind going to PKs rather then gamble like the Japanese.
I’m guessing England v Colombia will be more exciting and wide open because of the clash of styles.
I agree completely with the first paragraph and am torn on the second. Belgium has defensive issues and they push too many men forward. They will need to stay more compact, start Fellaini and let him dominate the smaller Brazilians with crosses.
They just went life and death with Japan so they’re going to put Brazil to bed in the QF? I’ll have a pint of what Art Rock is on.
I mean I’d like to see it, don’t get me wrong - but that was embarrassing this evening. Totally incoherent play that ended up with just launching it into the mixer to the big lad [had a good game Feli, tbf]. Martinez is a comedian but I thought the players could overcome that.
The Guardian is reporting that James Rodriguez is looking unlikely to play. This makes me sad.
The Belgians were probably playing inspired by their loud cheering section: Cleese.
How Neymar doesn’t get a yellow every game for simulation is beyond me. Well, simulation is basically never called, but it should be.
The announcers are discussing whether the Mexican player should be sent off, for stepping on Neymar’s toe slightly. The 4th official got it worse and didn’t flail around on the ground. Argh. Least favorite part of soccer.