Group D matches took place today to see who would advance to the knockout stage of the FIFA World Cup. We already know that Costa Rica advanced due to their 3-1 win over Uruguay and their 1-0 win over Italy. England was eliminated and Italy and Uruguay faced off to see who would advance. Italy would advance if they won or tied against Uruguay and the only way Uruguay would advance to the knockout stage is if they beat Italy. With that said, we saw Uruguay advance today in a game that at first looked promising but really was dreadful during the first half.
Uruguay and Italy kicked off and it seemed like a promising game, a game that would have us of our seats and hoping for goals and beautiful plays, crossovers, headers, saves by goalkeepers, but nothing really happened during the first half of the game. The only play that was promising was on Uruguay. Luis Suarez was able to juke two defenders in the box, get through them, and as he, what looked like a cross or at goal, Gigi Buffon was there to save Italy from being behind and elimination and then Edison Cavani was there for the rebound, kicked the ball at goal but again goalkeeper Buffon was there to save Italy one more time. It was a promising play and looked like Uruguay would take the lead, but Buffon was too good for them. Both teams didn’t fight that hard for a goal, especially Uruguay who needs the win, but this was only the first 45 minutes in play.
As the second half kicked off, we expected nothing less from these two teams in the next 45 minutes. The first half was boring, so we expected the same out of the second half. But things turned around for Uruguay as Italy faced many problems. Italy had to bench Mario Balotelli in the second half due to his discipline in the game and then Claudio Marchisio was red carded for committing a foul against Arevalo Rios. Marchisio was red carded for what looked like he went over the ball and attacked Rios really hard in his left leg. So that left Italy with ten men and things couldn’t get any worse.
In the 79th minute, we saw Luis Suarez do what he does best. Back in April of 2013, we saw Luis Suarez bite defender Branislav Ivanovic of Chelsea in a premier league game and was given a 10 game suspension. It seems that that experience didn’t teach Suarez anything because again we saw him do it today against Italy. As we can see in the replay, Suarez went into attack mode and decided to bite defender Giorgio Chiellini in the shoulder. Suarez wasn’t shown a yellow or red card for his actions but FIFA would take a good look at this and Suarez might face some harsh punishment if they do clarify that Suarez bit Chiellini in the shoulder.
Then we can clearly see that Luis Suarez pretended to be hit in the teeth and exaggerated his reactions towards the bite he committed towards the defender.
Two minutes later, things turned around for Uruguay as we saw Gaston Ramirez cross it from a corner kick and then Deigo Godin jumped over the Italy defenders and head the ball in to give Uruguay the 1-0 lead.
That seemed the only good play for the game and this win helped Uruguay advance to the knockout stage and face Colombia in the knockout stage. But the huge thing that everyone will be talking about in this game and if Uruguay really deserved to win this game due to Suarez’s actions. If FIFA rules that Suarez did bite Chiellini, they can sanction up to a 2 year ban, so Suarez can face some serious punishment here.
If they loss Suarez, Uruguay will not have a shot at advancing since it’s a player they count on so much but we have to keep in mind that they still have Diego Forlan in the bench who can take the spot of Suarez if the punishment is serious and takes place right away.
Uruguay, like I have mention, will face Colombia on Saturday in a match that will rule out either team and one of them will only be able to advance to the Quarter-final.
