New Zealand scored a late goal that for a moment had Egypt topping the group on goal difference. Iran had a late winner only to be denied by the automated VAR offside check as they almost jumped up into second place.

In the end, the two group favorites needed goal difference to settle their differences as the Red Devils and the Pharaohs were tied at five points apiece.

BELGIUM 5, NEW ZEALAND 1

A Leandro Trossard brace and a Kevin De Bruyne goal just after the hour mark had Belgium on their way to a comeback group win after two less than stellar draws.

But for a brief moment, New Zealand's star winger Elijah Just turned the group on its head with an 84th minute volley off a partially cleared corner. That brief moment lasted two minutes, which was about the amount of time Belgium need to sub on Romelu Lukaku and Nicolas Raskin because their first action was to restore Belgium's lead to three as Lukaku headed a Raskin cross down and into the net in the 86th.

Alexis Saelemaekers added an extra tally in stoppage time to help pad Belgium's goal difference numbers but it wasn't needed. It was a much needed performance and confidence boost for the knockout rounds after two very tepid offensive displays from the very potent Belgians.

EGYPT 1, IRAN 1

A 5th minute goal from Mahmoud Saber of Egypt was cancelled out less than ten minutes later by Ramin Rezaeian of Iran in the 14th, which doesn't include a Mehdi Taremi penalty save by Mostafa Shobeir in the 11th minute, but it was the potential final goal that will be the talking point here.

Iran's Shoja Khalilzadeh stabbed home the potential winner in stoppage time only to have the automated offside check by VAR rule about half his foot in an offside position. When the shot was taken and saved by Shobeir, there is a lot of confusion as to where the offside line needs to be drawn from, and this is a rare but still clearly defined situation.

As always, the offside law states a player must be level with the second to last opponent, which in this case was two outfield Egyptian players with keeper Shobeir off his goal line closer to the top of his six. VAR instead made the correct check against the second to last outfield player which showed Iran barely offside.

To add to the heartbreak, Iran also hit the crossbar in the waning moments as neither them or Egypt broke through with a vital winner that could have also turned the group upside down as Egypt went from first to third and then into second all in the span of about five minutes of real time.

GROUP OVERVIEW

Okay so we took a really long route to get here but we did eventually see the two group favorites advance with Belgium topping the group.

Aside from Iran's late flurry, I don't know if either team in that game really went for this win. Team Melli's xG numbers are inflated due to their PK chance and that late crossbar hit, but for the run of play each team only generated about a goal's worth of chances with a win begging to happen.

As it stands, Belgium will play Senegal but are in the bracket with the United States as a possible Round of 16 rematch. The Pharaohs will play Australia with the winner of that game opposite Argentina.

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