How do I make a download link open in a new browser tab when clicked and set a countdown on that tab before the file download link appears

thanks, @realjsop.
I added target="_top" to the href still the link does not open in new tab.
so I added target="_blank" to the href and it is now opening in a new tab.
I also added an onClick event to the HTML span tag where I want the user to click before the download redirection occurs.

but still, the countdown still happens right there on the same page, whereas I want a new browser tab to open when I click on the link in the Html span tag, and in that new browser tab is where I want the countdown to happen before it will finally display the actual download link.

I want to do it exactly how thewpclub. net did it.
please help.

And if it is not possible to do it with javascript, if it is PHP somebody should please write the PHP code for me

SEE MY CODE BELOW AND TELL ME WHAT AM DOING WRONG

HTML

<span class="c" id="5"><a href="ADDRESS OF PAGE WHERE I WANT THE COUNTDOWN TO HAPPEN" target="_blank"></a></span>

jQUERY

function c(){
var startTime = $('.c').attr('id');
var counter = startTime;
$('.c').text(counter);
setInterval(function() {
counter--;
if (counter > 0) {
$('.c').text(counter);
}
// Display 'counter' wherever you want to display it.
if (counter === 0) {
// alert('this is where it happens');
clearInterval(counter);
$('.c').text('');
$('.c').append('<a href="ACTUAL FILE DOWNLOAD LINK" target="_blank">Download</a>');
}
}, 1000);
}