The United States joins its co-hosts in the Round of 16. England and Belgium edge out in comebacks against their opponents to also advance to the Round of 16.
England 2-1 DR Congo
DR Congo controlled the game but could not hang on for the final 15 minutes, giving up two goals to give England the comeback win.
DR Congo were off to a flying start, scoring just seven minutes into the game. A beautiful pass from captain Chancel Mbemba found Brian Cipenga wide open on the left side of the box. Cipenga settled the ball and shot toward the near post, slipping just under Jordan Pickford’s glove and into the bottom corner of the goal.
DR Congo would play the English side evenly, at times looking as if they had a better chance at going up 2-0 than England had of tying the game. It was not until the 75th minute that a header from English captain Harry Kane would tie the game. 11 minutes later, he scored the winner with a powerful shot from just inside the right side of the box that curled around the defenders and up into the top-right middle of the goal.
England advances to the Round of 16 where they will face Mexico on July 5 at 8 p.m. ET.
Belgium 3-2 Senegal
Senegal give up a two-goal lead to Belgium in the last four minutes or regular time, and eventually lose 3-2 after a controversial penalty call in extra time.
Senegal started strong and controlled the game. Habib Diarra scored in the 24th minute and Ismaïla Sarr in the 51st. Senegal also looked as if they were going to score a third goal more than Belgium looked like they were going to get one back.
Then in the 86th minute, Belgium got their first goal back off a tap-in from Romelu Lukaku. Three minutes later Youri Tielemans got the equalizing goal off a cross where the Senegalese goalkeeper Mory Diaw mistimed his approach and the ball was headed over him and into the goal.
Since the game was tied after 90 minutes, it went into extra time. These 30 minutes were pretty even, with most of the action taking place in the middle of the field. Then in the 116th minute, a questionable foul took place in the box. After a nine-minute VAR review, a penalty was awarded to Belgium and Youri Tielemans converted it to win the game.
In my opinion, an incident on the field that was not given a foul should not be changed to a penalty if you needed nine minutes of VAR review to determine it was a foul. This means there was no clear and obvious mistake to overturn and call and therefore the on-field decision should remain.
Belgium advances to the Round of 16 where they will face the United States.
USA 2-0 Bosnia and Herzegovina
10-man USA holds on to advance to the Round of 16.
This was the longest it has taken the U.S. to get on the scoresheet so far in the tournament. Their first goal did not come until just before the halftime whistle. A deflected pass from Malik Tillman found its way to Folarin Balogun whose shot went through the outrushing keeper, and rolled into the empty net.
Unfortunately for Balogun, his night ended early as about 20 minutes later he was sent off for stepping on a Bosnia and Herzegovina player’s ankle.
This brought the U.S. down to 10 men and they shifted to a more defensive shape hoping to hold onto their 1-0 lead.
In the 82nd minute, the USA received a free kick right outside the box and Tillman was able to add to his assist by scoring. His shot dipped over the wall and all the goalkeeper could do was push the ball further into the left side netting.
USA advances to the Round of 16 where they will face Belgium on July 6 at 8 p.m. ET.
Although team USA advances, their next opponents are a lot stronger. They will need to put on a much better performance if they hope to move on to the quarterfinals as their form today was average compared to their group stage efforts.
We now have five of the eight Round of 16 matchups set: Canada vs. Morocco, Paraguay vs. France, Belgium vs. USA, Brazil vs. Norway, and Mexico vs. England.
As always, stay tuned to Futbolhijo.com for in-depth coverage of the biggest World Cup yet. Check back for my next article, where I will be covering matches and news that occur throughout the tournament. You can also read my previous article where I analyzed the last three Round of 32 matchups.
Cover Photo: England, Belgium, and the USA advance. NOTE: Image generated using the prompt “generate an image that matchs the following 2026 world cup articles title: England, Belgium, and USA advance to the round of 16,” by OpenAI, ChatGPT, 2026 (https://chatgpt.com/).
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