Costa Rica 1-1 Greece
(after extra time Costa Rica win 5-3 on penalties)
- Arena Pernambuco, Recife – Attendence 41,242
- Referee – Benjamin Williams
- Costa Rica goal – Ruiz (50)
- Greece goal- Papastathhopoulos (90)
- Bookings – Navas, Duarte, Ruiz, Tejeda, Samaris, Manolas
- Sending off – Duarte
There is an argument that the success in this World Cup has been off the back of the performances of some great number ten’s – Messi and Neymar obviously, everyone’s new favourite player James Rodriguez, and also Karim Benzema and Eden Hazard.
The Netherlands v Mexico game saw two great finishes by the respective number ten’s – dos Santos and the previously anonymous Wesley Schneider.
Well the last sixteen game between Costa Rica and Greece offered us two less notable number ten’s – Fulham legends Giorgos Karagounis and Bryan Ruiz. Would the lowly status of these two players be reflected in the game? Would the winner be giving Netherlands sleepless nights for a few days?
The fear for neutrals before the game was that the two teams would prioritise defence and look to counter-attack, which would create stalemate.
The first half pretty much turned out as badly as feared. It was more like an early season Carling Cup tie with lots of effort and little result. We were reminded of how bad the Greek economic crisis must be because they had use Leicester City’s strip as their away kit.
Then, right at the end of the half, the Greeks created a great chance for Salpangidis. The Costa Rican keeper Navas saved his shot by accident, the ball hitting his leg before he could get it out of the way.
But that wasn’t the finest mishit Costa Rica would come up with. As the ball was squared to him from the left just after the break, Bryan Ruiz envisioned the ball curling into the top right hand corner. Instead it came off his heel and rolled into the opposite corner, as the Greek keeper impersonated a marble statue from the Acropolis (or the British Museum as Twitter swiftly pointed out).
While the game got the goal it needed, the quality did not improve. Instead the petty fouling and gamesmanship got worse. Costa Rica went down to ten men as Oscar Duarte collected a second yellow. That sending off put Costa Rica under pressure as they began to tire.
This World Cup seems to guarantee excitement whatever the circumstances. And so in the last minute, as another hopeful punt headed to the Costa Rican penalty srea, it found Gekas who managed to get a shot in that the keeper pushed away. The rebound was struck home and it was then that the commentators realised it was their worst nightmare. The tongue twisting Papaboubadiopakopolis had scored, and Lee Dixon was forced to spend the whole of time added on trying to get his name right.
And so, God help us, onto extra time. As the game failed to improve, and to be fair to the players they were knackered, it was important to remember that extra time at least spared us a replay.
The main question by this stage was whether Joel Campbell would need an oxygen mask or the kiss of life to keep going, as both teams neared collapse.
The closest to a goal came right at the end when Mitroglu looked to put the nightmares of the last few months since leaving Olympiakos for Fulham behind him … but didn’t, as Navas saved his scuffed shot.
I was hoping for victory by a ‘Panenka’, so that the game could at least be remembered for something. Instead it was a great save by Navas and a calm finish by Umana that did it for Costa Rica. Good for them.
This looked like the weakest of the last sixteen games and it probably will be. The Dutch should be nailed on for a semi-final slot.
But the final thought should be that Ivory Coast, Italy and of course England should never have let sides these poor sides out-qualify them.
