Costa Rica progressed to the quarter-finals of the 2014 World Cup after beating Greece on penalties 5-3, following a 1-1 draw, despite being reduced to ten men at the Arena Pernambuco, Recife.
Bryan Ruiz's early second half goal was cancelled out by Sokratis Papastathopoulos in injury time, forcing the game to penalties, where Costa Rica emerged victorious.
The match started with Costa Rica creating the first chance in the 8th minute. Ruiz slipped a pass to Christian Bolanos but the midfielder's effort from a tight angle went over the crossbar.
Moments later, Lazaros Christodoulopoulos, after collecting a pass from Giannis Maniatis, dribbled his way past two defenders as he cut in from the left. However, in the end, his finishing was very disappointing as he blasted the ball wide of the post.
Greece again came close to breaking the deadlock at the half hour mark when Giorgos Karagounis unleashed an effort from 25 yards. However, Costa Rican goalkeeper Keylor Navas did well very and managed to keep the scores level.
Costa Rica finally broke the deadlock in the 52nd minute through Ruiz. Bolaños squared the ball from the left towards Ruiz, and the midfielder found the nets with a soft effort that rolled into the bottom corner of the net.
However, the Central American side's joy was soon cut short after they were reduced to 10 men in the 66th minute. Oscar Duarte, who had already been cautioned, was shown a second yellow after he brought down José Holebas with a mistimed tackle.
Just as Costa Rica looked like they were on the verge of securing a place in the final eight of the 2014 World Cup, Sokratis Papastathopoulos forced the game into extra-time after finding the leveller in the first minute of injury time. Although Navas managed to keep out Theofanis Gekas' initial effort, he was helpless as Papastathopoulos steered the ball home from the rebound.
Despite their numerical advantage Greece were unable to create many chances in the first half of extra-time.
However, Greece nearly grabbed the winner in the dying minutes of the second half of extra-time. Theofanis Gekas nodded a pass towards Kostas Mitroglou at the back post and the forward immediately fired a effort. However, Navas made yet another brilliant save to force the game into penalties.
The shootout proved to be very intense as neither side missed the first seven penalties. Finally Navas managed to save Theofanis Gekas' penalty and this gave Michael Umana the chance to score the winner, which he willing did by smashing the ball in the top right corner of the net.
Catch the full highlights of the game below:
