World Cup 2014 Brazil » Group D » Live commentary: Uruguay - Costa Rica 1:3

Endgame Summary:
Costa Rica manages to gain a surprise success! Although it was initially Uruguay trying to control the game, more and more the Ticos were able to get themselves into promising offensive situations. It was namely Joel Campbell who was involved in almost every attack, the 21-year-old clearly stood out among his team. It was also him who scored the equalizer ten minutes after halftime and it only took three additional minutes for Costa Rica to turn the score to their favor. Prior to this Cavani had converted a penalty in the first half, but later on Uruguay decreasingly managed to get near the opposition's goal. Finally the well-deserved 3-1 for the underdog sealed the defeat for La Celeste, who enter the tournament with a upset.

Maxi Pereira (Uruguay) is sent off
Oh, is this really a red card? Maxi Pereira is apprently trying to get the ball from Campbell, but instead he entirely misses the ball and hits his opponent's leg badly. After that, a mass confrontation forms, but Brych can calm the players down. Although the culprit apologizes to his victim, he's sent off. This decision is understandable, but still a little bit too hard.

That's the last substitution of the game: Bolaños goes off and Barrantes is now on the pitch for the remaining minutes.

Goooal for Costa Rica, 1:3 by Marcos Ureña
Unbelievable! Ureña just came on the pitch a minute ago and probably scores the winning goal! Campbell plays a through ball onto the right hand side, where the substitute finds himself alone and runs to the right corner of the six-yard-box. There the Kuban Krasnodar striker can defeat Muslera with a perfect low shot into the near corner of the goal.

Martín Cáceres (Uruguay) is shown a yellow card
Oh, that's a really bad foul! Cáceres jumps right into the legs of Gamboa and hits his opponent with this tackle. Obviously, German referee Dr. Felix Brych at least has to book the Juventus defender.

While Pinto replaces Tejeda with Cubero to reinforce the Costa Rican defense, Tabárez uses his third and final substitution. But it's not Suárez coming on the pitch, but rather Hernández taking over for Rodríguez.

The corner swings in from the right hand side and is followed by a header from Cavani, but Navas reacts with a great save!

That's really commendable! La Sele defend their lead with great commitment, Uruguay still can't get a hold of the ball. Will the Ticos manage to have a surprise victory?

Can the Ticos maintain their lead? Despite of what you would expect, they continue to play offensively.

One has to say, Costa Rica kinda have earned this, they are at least on a par with Uruguay since the game started.

Walter Gargano (Uruguay) is shown a yellow card
Gargano pushes Ruiz away and is booked for playing too rough.

Duarte almost scores the equalizer! The free-kick is crossed to the left post, where the defender fails to overcome Muslera. The goalie can block the header and Duarte's second attempt goes far off target.

Costa Rica pressure their opponents right from the beginning, so La Sele continues to play offensively and look quite bold.

This could've been the equalizer! Bolaños makes a corner kick from the left hand side and González tries to score with a diving header. But the defender misses the ball.

Campbell tries to get a rebound under control, but Lugano and Godín can stpo him from doing so with a collective effort.

La Sele have two corner kicks in a row, but Bolaños' crosses don't do the trick. Still, Uruguay can't regain control since they scored the leading goal.

Campbell is really making a good impression so far! He has a long-range effort from about 30 metres and his shot goes just past the right post.

Uruguay have a penalty! After a long cross from the left hand side, Júnior Díaz clings to Godín and overthrows the Atletico Madrid centre-back. So the Mainz 05 defender clearly fouls his opponent.

Cavani has an attempt from the right hand side of the box. But his shot goes well off target.

The Ticos have their first corner and the cross from the left hand side looks promising, but Ruiz' header goes over the bar.

Wow, that could have ended badly! Borges looses the ball in his team's own penalty box, but Arévalo can't profit from this. His shot is saved by Navas.

González is demanding a yellow card for Stuani after the Uruguayan attacks him on the right hand side near the Ticos' penalty box. Usually this would mean a booking for the defender, but he's being in the right!

The game begins!

Both nations played eight matches against each other so far. Uruguay won six times, besides the teams drawed twice. So the Ticos are waiting for their first win against the Celeste.

After being reaching only fifth place in the South American WC qualifying, Uruguay had to go into relegation against Jordan, but had a walk-over. With a 5-0 away win and a 0-0 draw at home, the Celeste qualified easily for the world cup. They also had some good friendly matches in this year, drawing with Australia (1-1) and winning against Northern Ireland (1-0) and Slovenia (2-0).

For Premier League fans, Bryan Ruiz probably is the most common name in Costa Rica's roster. The 28 year old offensive midfielder plays for Fulham FC since 2011, but was loaned to PSV Eindhoven in the past six months. Costa Rica's skipper sounded rather confident at the press conference: "Everything is ready for Saturday. We know what the team will be, the tactics we will use and also what we have to do during the game. There is a lot of motivation and, despite knowing that a point would be good, we don't want to settle and we will look for the three points."

After having knee surgery, the attacker recently participated in his teams training session on thursday, as his coach stated on friday: "Yesterday afternoon Suarez did the most important thing in training, which is play football." Still, Oscar Tabárez didn't want to risk letting his star play to soon: "We don't want to pressure him in any way, though, we have prepared for this game without Luis. We are very happy with his recovery, but we need to be cautious." Diego Forlán will be starting in his place today.

Being the first ones to play in group D, Uruguay and Costa Rica are looking for a good start into this world cup. While the Ticos are depicted as the underdog, it is believed that Uruguay could proceed to the next round, competing with Italy and England. After all, La Celeste reached the semifinals at the WC 2010. But it's also players like Luis Suárez getting the hopes of the Uruguayan supporters up.