Uruguay 1-3 Costa Rica: Los Ticos stun much fancied Uruguay
Costa Rica came from behind to stun South
American champions Uruguay 3-1 in the Group D
opener this evening.
The game was lively from the start as both sides
showed attacking intents early on. Uruguay
thought they were ahead after 14 minutes when
Diego Godin poked the ball into the Costa Rica net
from a free kick, but the referee judged the 28-year-
old to be offside.
Edinson Cavani came close again some minutes
later after getting on the end of a freekick from
Diego Forlan, but the ball was mishit and flew wide
of the post.
Oscar Tabarez’s men finally broke the deadlock on
24 minutes when Lugano was dragged down in the
box by an opposing defender and Cavani stepped up
to convert.
Costa Rica, determined to get back into the game,
had several good chances of their own, most
notably through Arsenal’s Joel Campbell, who fired
just over from 30 yards, and Giancarlo Gonzalez,
who couldn’t quite stretch enough to head the ball
in at the back post from Bryan Ruiz’s corner.
Costa Rica started the second half in the
ascendency as they searched for the equalizer.
The Central American fightback began in the 54th
minute when Campbell struck past Fernando
Muslera following a dangerous cross from Cristian
Gamboa.
And they were in dreamland just two minutes
later when Oscar Duarte’s diving header flew into
the Uruguay net, much to the jubilation of their fans
in the stadium.
Substitute Marco Urena who came on for captain
Bryan Ruiz wrapped up the win in the final ten
minutes of the game. The very impressive Campbell
sliced the Uruguay defence open with an exquisite
left-footed pass for the Kuban Krasnodar striker to
roll home from a tight angle and kick-off more wild
celebrations in the stands.
This result means Costa Rica head to the top of the
group with England and Italy set to play later.
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