Costa Rica 1-1 Greece (Pen 5-3): Los Ticos advance to the quarter-finals
Costa Rica were equalized 1-1 by their opponents in extra time while playing with one less player, but with determination and courage, Jose Luis Pinto and his team still won the right to continue.
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| Costa Rican players played bravely. |
Costa Rica had more possession in the first half, but this control was mostly in their own half or in the midfield. Meanwhile, Greece, with their thorough counter-attacking style, had more chances to finish. Most of their shots were harmless long-range shots, but one of them was a real scoring opportunity. That was when Dimitrios Salpingidis cleverly got down to the left wing and made a close-range tap-in in the 37th minute. But fortunately for Costa Rica, their talented goalkeeper Keylor Navas made a miraculous save with his feet. That was the only significant chance, the only bright spot in the first half.
The two teams played more actively in the second half. In the 47th minute, Georgios Samaras had a very good chance with a comfortable header in the penalty area, but still could not get past Navas's plastic hands. Meanwhile, Costa Rica also increased the speed of attack. And fortunately, right at the first significant opportunity created in the match, the CONCACAF team opened the score. In the 52nd minute, Christian Bolanos made a very delicate pass from the left wing to Brian Ruiz in front of the penalty area, and this sharp striker immediately finished, the ball did not go hard but very dangerous when it curved into the far corner of the goal, helping Costa Rica take the lead.
Despite being behind, Greece did not dare to attack. The European team only pushed up their formation after they had an extra man from the 66th minute after Costa Rica's Oscar Duarte received his second yellow card of the match and had to leave the field. However, the poor ability to impose their style of play and the slowness of the strikers up front prevented Greece from creating any really significant chances for most of the time after that. But surprisingly, in the extra time, Greece managed to equalize 1-1 thanks to Sokratis Papastathopoulos. The two teams were undecided in the official 90 minutes of play and had to play 2 extra periods.
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Entering the penalty shootout, after 3 consecutive successful kicks by the players of both teams, veteran Theodoros Gekas became the sinner when he could not defeat the amazing reflexes of goalkeeper Navas, before defender Michael Umana stepped up to successfully execute the decisive kick to seal a 5-3 victory for Costa Rica.
With this victory, the Central American and Caribbean representative has won the right to enter the quarterfinals to meet the Netherlands, the team that just defeated Mexico 2-1 in the match a few hours earlier.
LINEUP:
Costa Rica:Navas; Gamboa (Johnny Acosta, 77'), Duarte, Gonzalez, Umana, Diaz; Bolanos (Randall Brenes, 83'), Tejeda (Cubero, 66'), Borges; Ruiz, Campbell.
Greece:Karnezis; Torosidis, Manolas, Sokratis, Holebas; Maniatis (Katsouranis, 78'), Karagounis, Samaris (Mitroglou, 58'); Salpingidis (Gekas, 69'), Samaras, Christodoulopoulos.
