There are no winners in revenge missions. Sentiment demanded that Ghana should right the wrongs of their 2010 World Cup quarter-final against Uruguay and expiate the hurt of Luis Suárez’s last-minute handball on the line. But Uruguay, and Suárez in particular, have no time for such romantic notions of redemption. Ghana were again eliminated after missing a penalty but they had the consolation that, although Suárez set up two, it was South Korea and not Uruguay who went through to the last 16 with Portugal.
Uruguay did not react well. As Ghanaians sat in resigned weariness on the pitch, Uruguay’s players surrounded the idiosyncratic German referee, Daniel Siebert, at the final whistle, furious they hadn’t been awarded at least one of two huge penalty appeals in the second half. The Ghanaian fans, resigned by then to their exit, seemed to enjoy it all immensely. And as José María Giménez raged at Siebert, Suárez wept on the bench.
