INGLEWOOD, Calif. — Spain’s 2-1 victory against Belgium in the World Cup quarterfinals played in $5.5 billion stadium in Southern California might have been decided by research a few months earlier inside a closed-circuit, low-speed, low-turbulence wind tunnel at the University of Tsukuba in the Ibaraki prefecture of central Japan.

Physicists put Trionda, the four-panel Adidas ball created for this World Cup, through a series of tests and determined that it was impacted by something called drag crisis. When struck from certain spots at certain speeds, the ball could actually accelerate in flight and arrive at the goalkeeper faster than he initially calculated.

They performed tests at various elevations and found the phenomenon was most pronounced at sea level.

Some World Cup goalkeepers have said they’ve noticed the unanticipated acceleration, requiring an adjustment period to the differences from the balls they use in their professional leagues.

Except Senne Lammens, Belgium’s 24-year-old backup keeper from the tiny town of Zottegem in East Flanders, didn’t have that luxury Friday afternoon. He’s spent this World Cup on the bench, watching legendary Thibaut Courtois thwart one shot after another as the Red Devils survived a shaky group stage, dramatically came back from 2-0 down against Senegal, and then thumped the United States before 69,000 screaming fans in Seattle earlier this week.

Cameras caught Lammens on the bench during one match casually eating an apple.

Life comes at you fast, though — sometimes faster than you anticipated.

It did Friday afternoon for Lammens, when Courtois injured his left quadriceps midway through the second half. He initially lay on the field, got treatment and stayed in, noting that it only affected his ability to play long balls — a key part of Belgium’s tactical approach against the Spanish press — and didn’t stop him from making stops.

“I felt OK and I thought, ‘OK, I’ll continue,’” Courtois said. “Then I kicked again long and I felt a bit more. Then it’s something muscular, and you need to be careful. … I wanted to play maybe five, 10 more minutes to see, because in goal I was feeling good, I was making saves and I was not disturbed to make those saves.”

Coach Rudi Garcia saw Courtois wince again and turned to his assistants. Make the sub.

So in the 71st minute of a World Cup quarterfinal level at 1-1, Lammens trotted onto the field. Courtois, in tears, hobbled off.

It was Lammens’ third appearance with Belgium’s senior team and first since a 5-2 win against the United States in a March friendly in Atlanta.

“I wanted to be there for my team today,” Lammens said that night, “and maybe in the future, when I’m needed, I showed today that you can count on me.”

Then in the 88th minute, with the stalemate seemingly headed to extra time and possibly a penalty shootout, Spanish central defender Pau Cubarsi attempted a speculative shot from outside the penalty area. Lammens dove to his right for what should have been a relatively routine save, at least for a goalkeeper who was named the Premier League’s Transfer of the Season after moving to English giant Manchester United last September for the relative bargain of $24 million.

He had eight clean sheets in 32 appearances. His analytics ranked favorably among the league’s top goalkeepers. He was particularly adept at holding onto the ball in traffic and stopping long-range shots. And he didn’t seem bothered by the sudden spike in fame, going from 10,000 Instagram followers to 1.2 million practically overnight.

“He’s worn the heavy shirt of Man United with incredible lightness,” Garcia remarked recently.

Now he was diving to his right and suddenly what looked like a shot of average speed was accelerating and arriving sooner than he expected. It skipped, went through his hands, ricocheted off his chest and spilled into the goal mouth …

Spain’s Mikel Merino, who had subbed in 90 seconds earlier and scored the winner against Portugal in the round of 16 with similar last-minute heroics, was waiting to pounce.

La Roja 2, Red Devils 1.

Lammens sat there for a moment, stunned, staring at the black and orange gloves that had betrayed him, then covered his face with them.

The final whistle sounded a few minutes later. Courtois limped from the bench, across the field and found Lammens, who, still dazed 90 minutes later, blew through the post-match interview area without answering questions.

“Senne, I gave him a big hug,” Courtois said. “There’s not much more I can do at the moment. For goalkeepers, it’s a (crap) feeling. He’s a great goalkeeper. He will only get stronger from this. It’s not a problem.”

“You cannot say much more to him or give him much more advice. He’s a strong guy, a strong personality. I’m sure he will be fine. He will have some holidays, he will regroup in Manchester and he will have a great season, I have no doubt about this.”

Four days earlier, every move Garcia made — not starting the team’s three biggest stars, tweaking their formation and tactics — worked magically. He swapped out three starters Friday and became the first time in 649 minutes to score against Spain.

And then …

“The stars weren’t aligned for us,” Garcia said. “That’s part and parcel of high-level sport. From the beginning of the World Cup, I didn’t want to have players on the pitch who weren’t at 100%, and for Thibault that was the case. We didn’t want Thibault’s injury to get worse, either, and that’s why I decided to sub him off.

“We can’t rewrite history.”

Sometimes the biggest matches are decided by moments of sheer magnificence. Sometimes the backup ‘keeper fumbles a routine shot in the 88th minute of a World Cup quarterfinal.

It’s what makes the sport so unpredictable, so compelling, so engrossing.

So cruel.

So confounding.

Spain is headed to the semifinals against France on Tuesday in Dallas. Belgium is headed home.

“We started a little bit slow, not that good, then we grew during the tournament,” veteran defender Brandon Mechele said softly. “The first games were not top, but we succeeded; we grew. Especially (in) the last games, we played very well. We played our own style, also today against a very good opponent. We knew how we could hurt them. Yeah, I think we did this today.

“It’s a pity that it ended like this.”

A drag, you might say.

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