Despite promises from the Black Stars of Ghana to take revenge on Uruguay after being knocked out by the same opposition in controversial circumstances during the 2010 World Cup, they didn’t exactly live up to their promises to beat Uruguay and advance to the next round.
However, that loss may not sting so much for the Black Stars, as both countries were eliminated from the ongoing World Cup despite the South American nation claiming a 2-0 victory in their hotly anticipated grudge match.
Ghana had revenge on their mind going into their clash as 12 years ago, the Black Stars were stopped from becoming the first African team to ever make a World Cup semi-final appearance.
With the score locked at 1-1 until the final minute of extra time, Uruguay’s Luis Suarez committed what FIFA dubbed “one of the most infamous handballs in Word Cup history”. Suarez was sent off for the offence, but Ghana missed the resulting penalty and went on to lose the subsequent penalty shootout.
On Friday, Ghana was given the perfect opportunity to exact revenge following the award of a first-half penalty but Andre Ayew broke the heart of Ghanaians and Africans when his weak shot was effortlessly saved by Uruguay goalkeeper, Sergio Rochet, with that miss soon coming back to haunt them.
Before half-time, midfielder Giorgian de Arrascaeta scored twice to give Uruguay a 2-0 lead and seemingly a place in the knockout stages.
But there was to be yet more drama as Group H’s other match saw South Korea net an injury-time winner in the second half against Portugal, as Uruguay and Ghana continued playing. A 2-1 full-time result for South Korea had tied them level on points with Uruguay, although the former finished as runners-up having scored four goals in the group stage to Uruguay’s two. As the news trickled into the stadium, the tension became palpable on the faces of the Uruguay side and their fans, realising they were in a race against time to score another goal to stay in the tournament. But it was not to be as Ghana held on to keep the match at 2-0.
At the end of the match, a devastated Uruguay team were unable to control their emotions, hounding match referee Daniel Siebert and his assistants down the tunnel at the Al Janoub Stadium, and Suarez was captured on camera sobbing into his shirt as he watched from the bench.
Portugal finished group winners while South Korea secured their place as runners-up by virtue of having scored more goals than Uruguay, who had finished on the same number of points as South Korea. South Korea will now advance to meet the winner of group G while Portugal face the runner-up from the same group.
Ghanaian coach, Otto Addo confirmed he has resigned after his team’s exit from the World Cup yesterday evening. The former Ghana international, who was born in Germany and played for the Black Stars in their first World Cup finals appearance in 2006, had been a surprise appointment, parachuted in between Ghana’s ignominious exit at the January Africa Cup of Nations finals and their March World Cup qualifying playoff tie against Nigeria.
Addo’s departure means Ghana must move quickly to get a new coach in place before they continue their Africa Cup of Nations qualifying campaign in March next year.
He joins Roberto Martinez (Belgium), Carlos Queiroz (Iran) and Gerardo Martino (Mexico) as coaches who immediately left their jobs after World Cup elimination this week.
