Costa Rica vs Greece Live Scores, Video Highlights: Costa Rica in Quarter Finals, Greece Eliminated From World Cup 2014

Costa Rica and Greece finish full and extra time 1-1, and Costa Rica beat Greece 5-3 on penalties.
Costa Rica vs Greece Live Scores, Video Highlights: Costa Rica in Quarter Finals, Greece Eliminated From World Cup 2014
Konstantinos Mitroglou of Greece has his shot saved by Keylor Navas of Costa Rica in extra time during the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil Round of 16 match between Costa Rica and Greece at Arena Pernambuco on June 29, 2014 in Recife, Brazil. (Photo by Ian Walton/Getty Images)
6/29/2014
Updated:
6/29/2014

Costa Rica and Greece finish full and extra time 1-1, and Costa Rica beat Greece 5-3 on penalties.

Check out the highlights below. Go here for penalty highlights.

Bryan Ruiz opened the scoring for Los Ticos in the 52nd minute.

 Oscar Duarte lunged in on a tackle against Greece’s Jose Holebas, and was sent off in the 66th minute.

Sokratis Papastathopoulos scored in the 90th minute to equalize for Greece and pile on the drama.

 

See an AP match report.

Costa Rica Beats Greece in Penalty Shootout

RECIFE, Brazil (AP) — Costa Rica beat Greece in a penalty shootout Sunday to reach the World Cup quarterfinals for the first time after defending with 10 men for nearly an hour.

Michael Umana scored the decisive penalty as Costa Rica won the shootout 5-3 after the game ended 1-1 following extra time.

Greece’s Theofanis Gekas saw his penalty saved by Costa Rica goalkeeper Keylor Navas for the only miss in the shootout.

Costa Rica will play the Netherlands in the quarterfinals.

Costa Rica had taken the lead early in the second half through captain Bryan Ruiz but then had defender Oscar Duarte sent off in the 66th minute with a second yellow card for a mistimed tackle on Jose Holebas.

The red card changed the game at Arena Pernambuco and Greece poured forward for most of the remainder of the match.

The Greeks equalized in injury time when defender Sokratis Papastathopoulos smashed in a rebound to finally make the team’s numerical advantage pay.

Greece continued to storm forward in extra time but couldn’t find a way past Navas, who made the victory-clinching save in the shootout after saving his team for most of the match with a succession of last-gasp stops.

The victory delighted the majority of the just over 41,000 fans in Recife as the Brazilian locals shouted for Costa Rica throughout the round-of-16 game.

While the Costa Rican team made World Cup history for its small Central American nation, it also ended Greece’s best-ever run. Greece was playing in the second round for the first time.

After a scoreless first half, Ruiz slid his low shot into the right corner of Greece’s goal for the lead after a pull-back by winger Christian Bolanos from the left.

Duarte made a clumsy challenge on Holebas, however, and Costa Rica reverted to all-out defense to try and hang on for the win.

They nearly did it, but yet another save from Navas fell to Papastathopoulos in the first minute of injury time and he powered his shot home to give Greece hope.

 

Larry Ong is a New York-based journalist with Epoch Times. He writes about China and Hong Kong. He is also a graduate of the National University of Singapore, where he read history.