Belgium vs. Brazil score: Highlights from World Cup quarterfinals

Gabe Fernandez

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Belgium vs. Brazil score: Highlights from World Cup quarterfinals image

Arguably the final historically great World Cup nation has been eliminated from the World Cup thanks to an attack-heavy Belgian side that looked like they wanted to put seven goals past their opponents.

Belgium got the attack started early and often with counter-attacking efforts that seemed to cut through Brazil's defense with ease. The first resulted in a corner that forced an own goal to put the Red Devils up one. The second was a case of positional beauty from that created a Kevin de Bruyne howler.

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Brazil, for their part, showed just how dangerous they could be in the second half, recording 17 shots on target to Belgium's one. Once Augusto's header brought one goal back, the Brazilians appeared to have the energy to get a second. But two consecutive bad misses killed all momentum for the comeback and Belgium held on.

It seems like Belgium have used their close victory over Japan as momentum for this decisive victory. Now they'll go on to face France for a chance at playing in the World Cup championship game.

Sporting News followed the game to give you live highlights, updates and more. Here's what you might have missed.

Belgium vs. Brazil live: World Cup highlights

FINAL: Belgium 2, Brazil 1

90' + 5' —  BELGIUM IS THROUGH, BRAZIL IS OUT! Europe will have a European champion this World Cup!

90' + 3' —  OH MY GOODNESS WHAT A SAVE! Courtois continues to show out for Belgium with an amazing save on a beautiful curling shot from Neymar.

90' + 1' —  Brazil had a penalty shout as it appeared some contact was made with Neymar, but not enough to call it a penalty for Brazil.

90' —  Five minutes of injury time added.

89' —  YELLOW CARD: Fagner

87' —  SUBSTITUTION: Romelu Lukaku OUT, Youri Tielemans IN

85' —  SUBSTITUTION: Nacer Chadli OUT, Thomas Vermaelen IN

85' —  YELLOW CARD: Fernandinho

83' —  Another chance for Brazil falls flat! Neymar's counter finds Coutinho open in the middle, but his shot fires goes way off target.

81' —  HOW CLOSE WAS THAT?? Coutinho finds the substitute and gave him a chance for the double but with no one in front of him, he fires the shot wide.

78' —  The equalizer was there! Brazil drives the counter attack and a beautiful chipped pass found Roberto Firmino in the box, who skied the shot over the bar.

76' — GOAL BRAZIL (2-1)!  Game. On. Brazil finally sees a ball go in net off the head of the substitute! Renato Augusto heads it in to keep Brazil's World Cup dreams alive!

75' —  ANOTHER BIG SAVE FOR COURTOIS! A Brazilian push leads to three shots that were saved and blocked.

73' —  SUBSTITUTION: Paulinho OUT, Renato Augusto IN

72' —  Douglas Costa shoots it from outside the box, but the ball lands cleanly in Courtois' arms.

71' —  YELLOW CARD: Thomas Meunier. He won't play in the semifinal if Belgium make it through.

69' —  Lukaku's solo effort down the right-hand side comes just short after a heavy touch in the box forces a goal kick.

63' —  Almost for Brazil. A searching cross in the box is deflected by Courtois and lands to Paulinho's feet, who takes a bad touch and can't make anything of it.

62' —  JUST WIDE! Kevin de Bruyne leads the counter-attack and feeds Eden Hazard a beautiful ball who shoots it just wide.

58' —  SUBSTITUTION: Gabriel Jesus OUT, Douglas Costa IN

55' —  Almost a chance by Paulinho after Courtois is slow to react to his approach. Ball gets knocked out and Gabriel Jesus gets a chance in the box. He falls in the box and the call is no penalty as Kompany did not make direct contact.

54' —  Neymar goes into the box and appears to get tripped up. Review shows no contact was made as the ref told Neymar to get up. No card.

51' —  Marcelo twists and turns in Belgium's box and fires a great low cross, only to have it go behind net for a goal kick.

47' —  YELLOW CARD: Toby Alderweireld

46' —  And we're back!

SUBSTITUTION: Willian OUT, Roberto Firmino IN

HALFTIME: Belgium 2, Brazil 0

44' —  Neymar dribbles his way into Belgium's box but is tripped up. No card or penalty.

41' —  Brazil give the free kick to Belgium and De Bruyne hits it JUST too close to the keeper, who forces the ball over the net for a corner. The ensuing corner nearly goes in off of Kompany's backheel but gets stopped short.

38' —  Marcelo appears to be limping at the end of a Belgium counter-attacking attempt.

37' —  BACK TO BACK BEAUTY SAVES! Courtois was forced to make not one, but two heroic saves to stop Brazil from getting anything back. One from Marcelo, and another from Coutinho.

36' —  Another close chance for Brazil! Gabriel Jesus was all by himself in the box and headed the pass from Marcelo wide of the net. Brazil remain scoreless.

31' — GOAL BELGIUM (2-0)!!  As they've been a team to do all game, Belgium turns the counter-attack into a scoring effort. Lukaku charged through the midfield and passed it off to De Bruyne who rocketed it from just outside the box!

30' —  Free kick to Brazil from near the corner flag. Pass sails over the wall of yellow jerseys, lands at the feet of Fernandinho and then the ball got blocked out of bounds.

28' —  Neymar was off the pitch to recover from an apparent leg injury. Seemed to be a cramp as he's back on.

26' —  Courtois forced to make a stop off the end of a Marcelo rocket towards the bottom corner. Belgium come back with a counter but the final pass gets sent out of the box.

22' —  Chance for Belgium again! Lukaku nutmegs Miranda in the box and almost gets a chance to put the shot in goal. Thiago Silve gets there, however, to clear it out. The corner leads to nothing.

21' —  Belgium are quick with the counter again. Another cross into the box led to another deflection from Brazilian defenders.

19' —   Brazil are still threatening. Coutinho tried a shot from outside of the box that fell right to the hands of Courtois.

18' —  Belgium turned a lazy backpass from Brazil into a quick counter attack. Hazard attempted to feed the ball into the box, but it was cleared by Brazilian defenders.

15' —  Brazil are tring to respond quickly. Two threatening crosses int Belgium's box have forced the defense to frantically react to Brazilian attempts. The closest chance saw Gabriel Jesus in front of goal choose to pass it back instead of shoot and the ball only reached Belgians.

13' — GOAL BELGIUM (1-0)!  A Belgian corner deflects off of Fernandinho's shoulder and straight into Brazil's net! Travesty as Belgium takes the lead!

11' —  Another corner opportunity for Brazil is denied thanks to frantic defending and some luck. Neymar had a chance at goal, but the ball flew off his shin and weakly fell ot the feet of Alderweireld, who clears it. 

9' —  Lukaku takes the missed cross and counters it down the field. Meunier has a shot from outside the box, but misses wide.

8' —  SO CLOSE FOR BRAZIL! The corner kick for Brazil nearly gave them an opportunity to score with an open Thiago Silve in the box who was maybe two feet from goal. Unfortunately he hits it wide!

6' —  We have our first Neymar vs. Fellaini collision! The Belgian's elbow hits Neymar in the back of the head while he tries to swim past the Brazilian winger. No card.

3' —  Early threat from Brazil. Neymar gets a steal deep into Belgium's area and kicks it into the box, only to have the ball grabbed by Courtois.

1' —  Game on!

Prematch notes

Fernandinho is Brazil's starting XI in place of the suspended Casemiro and Marcelo is back in after suffering an injury during the group stage. The Real Madrid defender replaces Filipe Luis in defence. 

Marouane Fellaini and Nacer Chadli will start this match after they were introduced as second half substitutes with Belgium 2-0 down against Japan on Monday. Both players scored in the comeback. They take the places of Yannick Carrasco and Dries Mertens respectively.

Lineups

Brazil : Alisson, Fagner, Thiago Silva, Miranda, Marcelo, Paulinho, Fernandinho, Coutinho, Willian, Jesus, Neymar

Belgium : Courtois, Alderweireld, Kompany, Vertonghen, Meunier, Fellaini, Witsel, Chadli, De Bruyne, Lukaku, E. Hazard

Referee : Milorad Mazic (Serbia)
 

Gabe Fernandez