Roberto Martinez is an absolute genius, isn’t he?
With Japan 2-0 up after 52 minutes, the Spaniard needed to make some serious changes to his Belgium side if they were to avoid being the next ‘big’ team to go out of the World Cup.
So what did he do? Slung on a couple of Premier League misfits, of course.
With the score-line reading -0- at half-time, the lovely Japanese came out all guns a-blazing and were 2-0 up not before long thanks to two absolutely terrific goals.
And so it all looked rather hopeless for the Belgians, who only really had time on their hands.
So, on the 56th minute Martinez decided to take off Yannick Carrasco and Dries Mertens and put Man United elbow-merchant Marouane Fellaini and recently-relegated-with-West-Brom Nacer Chadli on in their place.
How we all laughed.
But at full-time, the only one of us laughing was Martinez after the pair inspired a stunning Belgium comeback.
A lucky-as-they-come header from Jan Vertonghen pulled one back for Belgium, before Fellaini netted the equaliser doing what he does best.
No, not slyly elbowing a defender when the referee isn’t looking, but by running into the box and finding himself in the right place at the right time to head home.
No wonder Jose Mourinho loves him so much, eh?
Then, with only seconds to go before extra-time, Belgium found themselves counter-attacking Japan, with five attackers going up against three defenders.
Thomas Meunier run from the left-wing and picked out Romelu Lukaku, who managed to back-heel to Chadli in space to tap home.
It’s nuts to think that Belgian’s hero is still technically a West Brom player.
