Courtois' injury dooms Belgium as Lammens makes crucial error in loss

Thibaut Courtois' untimely injury proved devastating for Belgium.

The superstar goalkeeper was forced to leave Friday's World Cup quarterfinal versus Spain in the second half with an apparent left thigh issue.

His replacement, Senne Lammens, made a crucial mistake that allowed Spain to score the decisive goal in the 88th minute of La Roja's 2-1 win.

Courtois, the Real Madrid netminder, was in tears as he was substituted in the 71st minute. He was treated on the pitch before eventually being replaced.

The match was tied 1-1 at the time.

Courtois said that he wanted to continue playing, but manager Rudi Garcia made the call to take him out of the game.

"Obviously, I wanted to continue, but the coach wanted someone 100%," Courtois explained, adding that it was "not a problem" to defer to the manager's decision.

"Obviously, you're not happy when you have to leave a quarterfinal of a World Cup. But yeah, sometimes it is what it is. You can't change it."

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Lammens, who plays for Manchester United, came off the bench for his first World Cup appearance. It ended up being one he'll likely want to forget, as the 24-year-old failed to corral a long-range shot by Pau Cubarsi, and Mikel Merino was quickly on the scene to capitalize on the juicy rebound.

Spain advanced to play France in the semifinals.

Courtois was seen embracing a distraught Lammens after the final whistle.

"I gave him a big hug. He's a great goalkeeper. You only get stronger from this," Courtois said after the match. "Eventually you cannot say much more to him or give him much more advice. He is a strong guy, strong personality. I'm sure he'll be fine."

Belgium also lost captain Youri Tielemans on Friday. The midfielder was scratched from the starting lineup after an undisclosed issue during the warmup in Los Angeles.