Costa Rica was only five minutes away from a trip to the quarterfinals when lightning struck. That was when a Greek lighting rod from the sky came into salvage what was going to be a Costa Rican win, giving Greece another life in what turned out to be a tying goal to send the game into overtime.
Very similar to what happened to Mexico earlier in their match against Holland, last second heroics from Greece in the 91’ sent Greece and Costa Rica into extra time. A well followed up rebound goal by Sokratis Papastathipoulos kept Greece’s hopes alive as both teams concluded regular time with a 1-1 score.
Costa Rica struck first with a goal in the second half, after a scoreless first half, on a 52’ minute goal by Bryan Ruiz who slotted home a cross from the top of the box off a nice pass from the left side of the box. Ruiz's shot did not have much power to it but had excellent placement and froze Greek Goalkeeper Keylor Navas on his line, as he watched the ball slowly roll to the far right post and into the corner of the net.
Unfortunately, a red card to Costa Rica’s Oscar Duarte changed the entire complexion of the game, as Duarte received his second yellow of the match in the 66’ minute thus putting Costa Rica down a man for the rest of the entire game including overtime.
Extra time had Greece all over the Ticos in the first half, as Greece took advantage of the extra man as a number scrambles in the box could have easily been goals for the Greeks but somehow the Ticos kept the ball out.
After a full extra time period, the Ticos and Greece remained deadlock tied up 1-1 and thus penalty kicks would dictate the future for both sides.
After a back and fourth round of penalty kicks, Greece’s Gekas missed in the fourth round allowing Costa Rica’s Michael Umana to take the final PK giving the Ticos a 5-3 Victory, sending the Cinderella Costa Ricans to the Quarter Finals for the first time in the Ticos history.
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