Twelve years since Luis Suárez’s “hand of God”

The quarter-final clash between Uruguay and Ghana at the 2010 World Cup is regarded as one of the most curious matches in history. In the last minute of extra time at 1-1, Luis Suárez stopped a shot on the goal line that would have eliminated the South Americans.

Understandably, both countries sensed a huge opportunity to break into the world’s top four, so their primary goal was not to make an unnecessary blunder that their opponents could exploit. So, as expected, the start brought a cautious opening.

After the first few minutes, Uruguay started to look more active, yet they were unable to create a 100 percent opportunity. A beautiful moment of football came just before the break, when Muntari shot from about 35 metres and opened the scoring with a beautiful shot.

The start of the second half was better for the South Americans. The pressure on the Ghana defence built up and resulted in an equaliser. In the 55th minute, after a foul on Fucilo, the experienced Diego Forlán took the execution and gave his opponent no chance with a shot from a direct free kick.

The end of the match brought nothing else, although there were a couple of good chances on both sides. So it went into extra time, which offered no significant pace in the opening fifteen minutes. The change of sides had no effect on the course of the match and it came down to penalties.

Ghana successfully turned away a corner kick and then went on a counter attack that could have decided the match. After a series of shots inside the Uruguayan penalty area, Luis Suárez clearly played his hand on the goal line and saw a red card. Asamoah Gyan wanted to make the decision, but he couldn’t hold his nerve and hit the crossbar!

For the second time in the tournament, a penalty had to decide the winner. The Uruguayan goalkeeper was the hero of the penalty shootout, as he managed to catch two shots from Ghana. The South Americans thus defeated Ghana 2-1 on penalties (4-2).

Source: FIFA