Belgium beat Japan with this fast-break counterattack goal on final kick of game

Ironic, eh?

Japan quit playing late in its group stage game against Poland knowing it would advance by doing nothing. On Monday, Japan lost its knockout game by being outplayed late against Belgium.

Japan held a 2-0 lead with less than 25 minutes to play, but Belgium scored twice in a six-minute span to tie it.

It stayed 2-2 until the end of injury time when Japan had a corner kick. Belgium goalie Thibaut Courtois caught the ball and rolled it to Kevin De Bruyne. He dribbled it about 10 yards past midfield and passed to Thomas Meunier, who had plenty of space on the right side.

Meunier crossed the ball, and Romelu Lukaku pretended to play the ball, which allowed Nacer Chadli to come from behind and tap the ball into the back of the net on what turned out to be the final kick of the game.

Fox Sports timed the counterattack at 9.9 seconds. It was a stunning, beautiful piece of teamwork:

Fox Sports said the last time a team rallied from a two-goal deficit in a knockout game was 1970 when Germany defeated England.

This was Belgium's first goal on its comeback. Jan Vertonghen headed in a ball from long distance:

This story was originally published July 2, 2018 at 3:29 PM.