Uruguay book place in World Cup semi-finals
Marching on....
By Chris,
July 3 2010
Ex-Red Diego Forlan scored a superb free-kick as Uruguay booked their place in the semi-final of the World Cup with victory over Ghana. The Scousebuster continues his sensational form as Uruguay secure a date with the Netherlands, conquerors of Brazil, in the tournament’s final four.
Ghana were on course to become the first African nation to book their place in the World Cup semi-finals as they took the lead through Sulley Muntari in first-half injury time.
However, the South Americans struck back ten minutes after the interval as Forlan fired home a tremendous free-kick.
The game headed into an extra thirty minutes as both sides threatened a winner - but some moments of true drama were saved for the closing seconds of the contest.
In the final minute of extra-time, Luiz Suarez legally blocked a Steven Appiah chance on the line before illegally palming a Dominic Adiyiah effort clear with his hands. The referee was left with no choice but to send Suarez off and award a penalty - but it proved to be a gamble that paid off in amazing fashion.
Ghana's Asamoah Gyan fired his spot-kick over the bar and the game went to penalties. Though the African nation had dominated the closing stages of the game, the missed kick sapped their morale as penalties got underway.
Forlan opened the scoring before Gyan - having missed an effort seconds earlier - restored parity. It went to 3-2 Uruguay before John Mensah missed for the Africans. Maxi Pereira then missed for Uruguay - but Abiyiah then saw his effort saved and Sebastian Abreu's risky chip down the middle sent Uruguay through.
A truly gripping and amazing contest. Well done Uruguay and well done ex-red Diego.