Tears for two Belgium goalkeepers

INGLEWOOD, California, July 10 : Tears streamed down Belgium goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois' face as he sat on the bench with a leg injury during the second half of Friday's World Cup quarter-final against Spain.

But after his team's 2-1 loss, the 34-year-old was trying to console his replacement Senne Lammens who was sent on after 71 minutes, but could not hold on to a low strike by Pau Cubarsi and Spain substitute Mikel Merino pounced for an 86th-minute winner.

"Senne, obviously, I gave him a big hug," Courtois told reporters. "I know, for goalkeepers, this is a shit feeling, and he's a great goalkeeper, and he will only get stronger from this."

Courtois said he had felt a twinge as he launched a long kick early in the second half.

“I felt something here in my muscle. Then, I did some saves, I felt okay, so I thought, okay, we'll continue. Then I kicked again long and I felt it a bit more."

The decision for him to leave the field was made by team manager Rudi Garcia.

"Obviously, I wanted to continue, but yeah, the coach wanted someone 100 per cent, so okay, that's his decision. I wanted to try to play maybe five, 10 more minutes to see, because in goal I was feeling good.

"I was making the saves, and I was not disturbed to make those saves, and I was only disturbed to kick long. So that's the decision of the coach, and that's not a problem."

Garcia bemoaned the loss of Courtois as a key moment for Belgium.

"Losing him during the game - that was a hard hit to take," Garcia said. "When you start racking up the years you need to always be at 100 per cent of capacity. Because if you are not... it can be problematic."

"Thibaut was there to keep the ball out of the net, but unfortunately to beat a team of this calibre... the stars weren't aligned."

(Additional reporting by Leela de Kretser, editing by Ed Osmond)