World Cup 2018: 5 best goals from the Round of 16

#5: Nacer Chadli – Belgium vs. Japan

Nacer Chadli's winner for Belgium against Japan completed an incredible break

With Belgium trailing 2-0 to Japan and just over 25 minutes remaining, manager Roberto Martinez decided to roll the dice – and took off attackers Dries Mertens and Yannick Carrasco, replacing them with Premier League stars Marouane Fellaini and Nacer Chadli. Few people expected the turnaround that was about to take place.

Ten minutes after his introduction, Fellaini headed home an equaliser to follow Jan Vertonghen’s looping header in the 69th minute. Belgium were level in a game that looked beyond them at 2-0 down, but incredibly, better was yet to come. With both sides pushing for a winner late on, Japan gained a corner deep into injury time and piled bodies forward to look for the killer goal.

It turned out to be a massive error. Rather than ending in a goal, the corner ended in the arms of Thibaut Courtois, who quickly rolled the ball out to Kevin de Bruyne, and a quick break was suddenly on. De Bruyne ran from the edge of his own box into Japan’s half before rolling an inch-perfect pass to Thomas Meunier – who then sent an equally perfect cross towards Romelu Lukaku.

But rather than shoot, Lukaku had the wherewithal to throw off the Japanese defence with a dummy – allowing the incoming Chadli to slot the ball past goalkeeper Eiji Kawashima and into the net. It was a break of the absolute highest quality, and to make it even more incredible the goal came with essentially the last kick of the game.

Belgium’s victory was the first time since 1970 that a side had come from 2 goals behind to win a World Cup tie, and it was a goal of unbelievable class that won it for them.