Uruguay beat Ghana, but not by enough, with South Korea’s stoppage-time winner against Portugal enough to advance at the World Cup on a tiebreaker.
For a fourth straight day at the 2022 World Cup, group finales have created immense drama in Qatar.
Uruguay, playing Ghana 12 years after a famous matchup in South Africa, won 2-0 and thought it had a spot in the knockout stage in the bag. But South Korea battled back from an early deficit in the simultaneous Group H match to beat Portugal 2–1, scoring a stoppage-time winner on a counterattack spearheaded by Son Heung-min and finished off by Hwang Hee-chan. That allowed South Korea to advance over La Celeste on the goals-scored tiebreaker after both were even on points and goal differential.
Ghana, which opened the day looking to deal Uruguay a bit of justice and revenge for what happened in the 2010 quarterfinals, when Luis Suárez’s intentional handball denied Ghana an extra-time goal in the quarterfinals in South Africa, wound up going out as well. But by not conceding a third goal to the South Americans, it at least ensured that it’d take them down and out, too.
Uruguay, which hadn’t scored in its first two matches in Qatar, came out aggressively Friday and thought it had earned a free kick in the fourth minute when Darwin Núñez, the forward partnering with Suárez instead of Edinson Cavani, went to ground right at the edge of the Ghana box after a challenge by a pair of defenders. The official wasn’t having it, though, ruling that the Liverpool striker went down far too easily, and play continued on.
In the group’s other match, Portugal seized an early lead through Ricardo Horta. That meant that at that point Ghana would only need a draw to go through, while Uruguay would be through with a win.
Meanwhile, back in Ghana-Uruguay, Núñez was nearly played through the center after a direct long ball down the middle and a flicked-on header, but Ghana’s defense recovered in time to prevent him from having a look at goal.
Ghana’s first opportunity came 15 minutes in, as Jordan Ayew carried to the top of the box, evaded a couple of defense and laced a low shot on frame, but Sergio Rochet made the save. VAR came into play moments later, though. Rochet had parried the initial save but committed a foul on Mohammed Kudus when trying to keep out the rebound and was whistled for it after the review.
It didn’t matter, though. André Ayew’s spot kick was awful, and Rochet went down and to his left to make a rather straightforward save, marking another missed Ghana PK against Uruguay on the World Cup stage.
That moment came back to haunt Ghana shortly after. Suárez got a free look from the left side of the box and had his shot saved, but the rebound trickled back toward the goal, and de Arrascaeta was there to put it into the vacated net, which, at the time, meant Uruguay was through and Ghana was out.
The lead doubled in the 32nd minute, and it was the same combination that made it happen. Suárez looped a pass over to Giorgian de Arrascaeta, and he expertly volleyed his chance home to score a second goal that padded Uruguay’s advantage.
Soon after in the other match, South Korea pulled level with Portugal, which didn’t change anything at that moment in the table, but it did give the Asian side a lifeline, opening up more possibilities if it could go ahead.
Uruguay knew it needed to pad its goal differential to guard against South Korea beating Portugal and advancing via tiebreaker. And in the 59th minute, it nearly got its chance. Núñez again went down in the Ghana box after a tackle by Daniel Amartey, but after VAR review, the penalty was not given, keeping things at 2-0.
That third goal nearly came in the 65th minute, when Facundo Pellistri had a great chance to score from close range, only to push his side into the side netting. In the 70th minute, Ghana goalkeeper Lawrence Ati-Zigi was forced to make a reaction save on Federico Valverde’s blast from distance, with the Real Madrid star hitting the target with an audacious attempt.
Ghana hardly carved out chances to give itself an opportunity, but one came in the 79th minute through substitute Antoine Semenyo, who pulled a shot from the left just wide of the far post.
Rochet was then forced into a stellar diving save in the 82nd minute, robbing Kudus of a blast from 18 yards out.
Uruguay’s inability to get a third goal came back to bite La Celeste in the end. South Korea scored its go-ahead goal in stoppage time against Portugal, which put the Koreans ahead on the goals-scored tiebreaker, with them and Uruguay even on points and goal differential.
Uruguay pushed to carve out its chances. First, it had Cavani go down in the box, looking for a penalty that never came. Then, Ati-Zigi robbed Uruguay of the goal it needed with a diving save to his right to deny Maxi Gómez’s long-range blast. A free kick at the death was also caught by Ati-Zigi, and that was that for both teams, with Uruguayan players learning of the news and moved to tears, their World Cup ending abruptly.
Here were the lineups for both sides:
Full World Cup squads
Ghana
GOALKEEPERS: Lawrence Ati-Zigi (St. Gallen), Ibrahim Danlad (Asante Kotoko), Abdul Manaf Nurudeen (Eupen)
DEFENDERS: Joseph Aidoo (Celta Vigo), Daniel Amartey (Leicester), Abdul-Rahman Baba (Reading), Alexander Djiku (Strasbourg), Tariq Lamptey (Brighton), Gideon Mensah (Bordeaux), Denis Odoi (Club Brugge), Mohammed Salisu (Southampton), Alidu Seidu (Clermont)
MIDFIELDERS: André Ayew (Al Saad), Daniel Afriyie Barnieh (Hearts of Oak), Mohammed Kudus (Ajax), Daniel-Kofi Kyereh (St Pauli), Elisha Owusu (Gent), Thomas Partey (Arsenal), Salis Abdul Samed (Lens)
FORWARDS: Jordan Ayew (Crystal Palace), Osman Bukari (Red Star Belgrade), Abdul Fatawu Issahaku (Sporting CP), Antoine Semenyo (Bristol City), Kamal Sowah (Club Brugge), Kamaldeen Sulemana (Rennes), Inaki Williams (Athletic Bilbao)
Uruguay
GOALKEEPERS: Fernando Muslera (Galatasaray), Sergio Rochet (Nacional), Sebastián Sosa (Independiente)
DEFENDERS: Ronald Araujo (Barcelona), Martín Cáceres (LA Galaxy), Sebastián Coates (Sporting CP), José Giménez (Atlético Madrid), Diego Godín (Velez Sarsfield), Mathías Olivera (Napoli), José Luis Rodriguez (Nacional), Guillermo Varela (Flamengo), Matías Viña (Roma)
MIDFIELDERS: Giorgian de Arrascaeta (Flamengo), Rodrigo Bentancur (Tottenham), Nicolás de la Cruz (River Plate), Lucas Torreira (Galatasaray), Manuel Ugarte (Sporting CP), Federico Valverde (Real Madrid), Matías Vecino (Lazio)
FORWARDS: Agustín Cannobio (Athletico Paranaense), Edinson Cavani (Valencia), Maxi Gómez (Trabzonspor), Darwin Núñez (Liverpool), Facundo Pellistri (Manchester United), Luis Suárez (Nacional), Facundo Torres (Orlando City)