Joel Campbell played a full part and scored a penalty as Costa Rica reached the quarter-finals of the World Cup for the first time after a dramatic 5-3 shootout win against Greece.
Bryan Ruiz's low finish in the 52nd minute gave Costa Rica the lead in normal time but the game turned on 66 minutes when Oscar Duarte was sent off for two bookable offences.
Campbell, who has started every game of the tournament so far, produced another lively performance in attack, showing impressive hold-up play in the latter stages as Costa Rica desperately tried to defend their slender lead.
But in the 90th minute, Sokratis Papastathopoulos bundled home a dramatic equaliser to take the game into extra-time after Kaylor Navas could only parry Theofanis Gekas' shot from close range.
Greece controlled the majority of extra-time and missed two glorious chances to score a winner. Lazaros Christodoulopoulos' shot was well saved by Navas who then denied Kostas Mitroglou with his legs in the final seconds to ensure the game went to a shootout.
Celso Borges and Mitroglou both converted each side's opening spot-kicks, Ruiz and Christodoulopoulos followed suit. Giancarlo Gonzales and Jose Holebas made it 3-3 before Campbell stroked home Costa Rica's fourth. Navas then made a superb stop to deny Gekas and Michael Umana stepped up to score the winning penalty and set up a quarter-final tie against the Netherlands.
Copyright 2024 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.
