It was a very dramatic encounters between Uruguay and Ghana on Friday, the South Americans won2-0 at the Al Janoub Stadium, but got knocked out alongside their African opposition thanks to South Korea’s shock 2-1 victory over former European champions, Portugal.
Ghana started the game with revenge on their mind for 2010, and started the brighter of the two.
Mohammed Kudus was at the heart of the early pressure and did well to win a penalty in the 21st minute, when his clever move left Sergio Rochet no other option than to bundle the attacker.
But once again Ghana were haunted by their World Cup penalty woes, when captain, Andre Ayew failed to find the back of the net from the spot. Rochet made amends for his earlier mistake by keeping the ball out.
Uruguay responded almost immediately through Giorgian de Arrascaeta as he was on hand to head into the net after Lawrence Ati-Zigi pulled a save off Luis Suarez’s strike to put La Celeste ahead just five minutes after.
Rejuvenated after the first goal, Uruguay got the second seven minutes after and once again Luis Suarez was at the center of it as he innovatively dinked the ball onto the path of Giorgian de Arrascaeta who made no error to blast in his second of the game.
After the restart, Ghana started strongly and could have also scored if not for poor decision making in the final third.
In the other fixture South Korea turned the game around coming from a goal down to lead Portugal 2-1, and the onus fell on Uruguay to find a third goal to edge it on goal difference, but Ghana were resolute and eventually ensured that both teams got knocked out as Portugal and Korea advanced.
