Costa Rica shocked Uruguay by beating them 3-1 at the Estadio Castelao in Fortaleza, Brazil in the World Cup on Saturday afternoon.
La Celeste took the lead in the first half from an Edinson Cavani penalty but Los Ticos scored in the second half with goals from Joel Campbell, Oscar Duarte and Marcos Urena to complete a great comeback. Uruguay made things worse for themselves when Maxi Pereira received a straight red card at the end.
Costa Rica did not look overawed by the occasion early on and they were able to put some passes together.
Los Ticos did look vulnerable from set-pieces though, especially when Diego Forlan took Uruguay’s free-kicks from the wings.
From Forlan’s free-kicks, Diego Godin had a goal disallowed after 15 minutes when he scored from an offside position, and Cavani’s angled drive failed to hit the target.
Then Forlan’s out-swinging free-kick from the left went into the box and the Celeste won a penalty. Uruguay captain Diego Lugano was held by Costa Rica’s Junior Diaz, who had his arms around him.
Cavani put Uruguay 1-0 up from the resulting spot kick after 23 minutes and his shot went to Keylor Navas’ left-hand side. Navas guessed the right way but he failed to get a touch.
This spurred Costa Rica on as Campbell took a long-range shot which missed the target and Giancarlo Gonzalez had a weak shot in the box deflected for a corner.
Forlan’s left-foot striker was deflected high into the air by Duarte but Navas made a superb fingertip save to prevent Costa Rica from going 2-0 down.
Campbell’s header ba
llooned over the bar for Los Ticos, who went in 1-0 down at half-time.
Costa Rica improved in the second half as they searched for goals and duly got them.
Lugano received the first yellow card of the game after fouling Campbell but that didn’t stop both teams from creating chances.
Duarte failed to score after his header was saved by Muslera and he couldn’t get proper contact on the rebound. Then Cavani had a long-range shot for Uruguay which didn’t trouble Navas.
Campbell equalised for Costa Rica after 54 minutes. Cristian Gamboa’s cross from the right-wing went off Diego Godin and Campbell controlled ball with his first touch before smashing a left-foot volley with the second.
Uruguay’s Walter Gargano received a yellow card for touching Bryan Luiz, and after 57 minutes, Los Ticos took a shock 2-1 lead.
Duarte had missed a good chance from a Christian Bolanos free-kick from the right early on but from a similar situation, he made no mistake as his header from the far post beat Fernando Muslera in the Uruguayan goal.
Campbell failed to hit the target from long range and Ruiz’s header went over the bar after another Bolanos free-kick. Celso Borges tried his luck from distance but missed the target.
Uruguay started to create more chances and threw on more substitutes. Cavani’s cross flashed across goal and Diaz headed the ball away for a corner.
After the corner, the ball was crossed into the box for Cavani, whose header forced a superb diving save from Navas.
Los Ticos punished Uruguay for leaving space in defence and made it 3-1 after 84 minutes. Urena had been on for 90 seconds but he ran onto a Campbell pass and squeezed a shot in from the tightest of angles past Muslera.
Navas punched away a Nicolas Lodeiro corner and then Maxi Pereira received a straight red card after a vicious kick on Campbell in stoppage time.
