AL WAKRAH — Giorgian de Arrascaeta scored twice in six first-half minutes as a resurgent Uruguay beat Ghana 2-0 in the World Cup on Friday only to crash out of the tournament agonizingly after South Korea’s shock win over Portugal.
In Group H deciders that went right down to the wire, Uruguay had one foot in the last 16 before South Korea scored in stoppage time and go through by virtue of scoring one goal more than the South Americans over their three matches.
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Uruguay had left themselves with a mountain to climb, with their cast of big-name strikers unable to find the net in their opening games, leading to their first group-stage exit in two decades.
“Without doubt, we did everything we could. We paid dear,” said De Arrascaeta, who was in the starting lineup at the World Cup for the first time.
“We are sad because we left our all in this game, we scored goals and the outcome didn’t depend on us, it left us out.”
Veteran striker Luis Suarez, playing in his fourth World Cup, was also recalled to the team as captain and was instrumental in both of the goals. At the final whistle, he was inconsolable on the bench after Uruguay’s fate was sealed.
With South Korea tied with Portugal late in their match and Uruguay two goals up, the South American side looked almost certain to go through before the pendulum swung agonizingly in the direction of South Korea.
Uruguay battled desperately for the decisive goals, with Ferderico Valverde going close with a volley from outside the area and Maxi Gomex having his shot saved by keeper Lawrence Ati-Zigi two minutes from time.
EARLY ONSLAUGHT
Uruguay went on the attack right from the start of the match and finally broke the deadlock on 26 minutes when Darwin Nunez’s cross from the right was missed by two defenders and found Suarez, whose low shot was spilled by the keeper for De Arrascaeta to head home from close range.
Uruguay struck again six minutes later, when Nunez flicked the ball on to Suarez, who knocked it on to De Arrascaeta to volley under the keeper.
The late drama overshadowed what was a much-billed World Cup grudge match between the two teams, with Suarez – much reviled in Ghana and beyond – the architect of the African side’s exit from the 2010 quarter-finals.
Suarez was famously given a red card in South Africa for using his hand to block an extra-time winner for Ghana, who missed the resulting spot kick and lost out to Uruguay in a penalty shootout.
In a painful twist, it was Ghana who could have scored first on Friday in Al Wakrah, after they were awarded a penalty after a shot from Jordon Ayew was parried by keeper Sergio Rochet, who pulled down onrushing Mohammed Kudus.
Andre Ayew, the only survivor from the Ghana squad of 2010, fired tamely at Rochet, giving Uruguay the impetus to double down on their attack.
But Uruguay lacked their first-half punch when they returned from the interval and they failed to further break down Ghana and boost their goal difference, allowing South Korea to go through.
“For 80 minutes, we were qualified. We had many chances to do it but in the end it wasn’t possible,” Uruguay coach Diego Alonso said.
“We had four or five chances in the last minutes but unfortunately we didn’t score.” (Additional reporting by Corina Pons, Angelica Medina, Janina Nuno Rios, Angelica Medina and Andrew Cawthorne; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
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