Ten-man Belgium came back from one goal down to beat Italy 3-2 and reached the semifinals of the men's soccer tournament at the Beijing Olympics on Saturday.

Italy was also reduced to 10 players when their goalkeeper Emiliano Viviano was expelled just after Moussa Dembele scored his second goal, Belgium's winner, in the 80th minute.

Viviano, whose right eye was bleeding following Belgium's forward Kevin Mirallas threw the ball at his face, got enraged and pulled down the striker from behind violently. As he then grabbed Belgium's forward To de Mul, who tried to stop the brawl, by the neck, referee Hector Baldassi of Argentina raced up and showed him the red card.

Viviano said he had no intention to attack Mirallas.

"I wasn't going to hit him. I was very calm at that time. I was just asking him why he threw the ball at me. I was not seriously injured. I want to say sorry to him," he said.

With only 17 minutes into play, Belgium found themselves in trouble after defender Thomas Vermaelen received the marching order for fouling down Italian forward Robert Acquafresca inside the area. Italy was awarded a penalty which was converted by Giuseppe Rossi.

With one player less, the underdog Belgium went all out to equalise the score, and they did it in the 24th minute when striker Moussa Dembele headed in a controversial goal off a corner. Baldassi ruled the goal stood after an Italian defender cleared the ball off the goal-line.

"I'm very satisfied with that goal because I did it when we were in a very dangerous situation. One of our players saw the red card and Italy scored a penalty kick. When I scored I felt very happy," Dembele said.

Mirallas put Belgium ahead just before the interval when he shrugged off Italian defender Salvatore Bocchetti and put the ball into the net.

Italy made it 2-2 at the 73rd minute from another penalty after Belgium defender Sepp de Roover tripped Italy's defender Paolo de Ceglie before the goal. Rossi made it from the spot again.

But the tenacious Belgians raced ahead for the second time with ten minutes to go through Dembele whose ferocious long-range attempt left Viviano with no chance.

Belgium coach Jean Francois de Sart was delighted by his team's win and picked Dembele out for praise.

"You need players who can make a difference. Today Dembele made a difference but you still have to trust the other players. The defence had a perfect game but Dembele scored twice today," he said.

Belgium will play Nigeria, who beat Cote d'Ivoire 2-0, in the semifinal in Shanghai on Tuesday.

(Xinhua News Agency August 16, 2008)