In one of the most exciting games in the World Cup 2010 tournament, Uruguay beat Ghana by 4-2 in the penalties and is advancing to the semi-finals stage for the first time after 1970. The score at the end of regular and overtime was at 1-1, with Ghana committing suicide in 120′ after Asamoah Gyan missed a last second penalty shot, as well as Africa’s biggest opportunity to send a team in the World Cup Top 4 for the very first time in the history of the competition.
Both Uruguay and Ghana offered a fantastic in terms of football quality and chances first half, that satisfied all fans coming in the Soccer City stadium of Johannesburg. Uruguay had the overall ball possession during the first minutes of the game, with Álvaro Fernández missing a good chance in 3′. Óscar Tabárez and his players continued having control over the midfield area, but after the 30th minute Ghana started to slowly come back and missed a couple of chances with close headers by Isaac Vorsah (30′) and Asamoah Gyan (31′).
And when everyone thought that Portuguese referee Olegário Benquerença was about to signal the end of the first 45 minutes, Sulley Muntari scored a fantastic goal for Ghana with a 35 meter power shot, sending his team in the locker rooms with an unexpected psychological advantage for the second half.
Uruguay saw the efforts of the entire first part collapse in 47′, but came back strong in the game to score an equaliser 10 minutes in the second half: usual suspect Diego Forlán sent a superb left-side foul shot in the corner of Richard Kingson’s post, that was unable to do anything but watch the ball go past him. The two opponents did not settle after the 1-1 and continued making chances and playing great football for the rest of the match, but failed to convert any of these opportunities into a goal so the game went into overtime.
The entire 30 minutes of overtime belonged to Ghana that looked fresh, going after every play and creating chances while Uruguay was practically invisible on the field. And in the very last minute of the game Ghana lost the biggest chance of them all, with Dominic Adiyiah unable to score an easy goal from close range that Luis Suárez stopped using his hands (sent off with a red card). Asamoah Gyan stepped up to take the penalty shot but threw the ball on the post, sending his team into the penalties. Uruguay was more confident, converted four penalty shots to goals while goalkeeper Fernando Muslera successfully blocked two of them, and just like that Ghana was out and Uruguay in the semi-finals of the World Cup 2010 in South Africa.
