Italy 0-1 Costa Rica: Bryan Ruiz scores goal which dumps England out of World Cup
Lay your patriotism and your disappointment to one side for a moment if you can and revel in the glory of little Costa Rica.
In a World Cup knee deep in fascinating stories and surprises, the tiny Central American nation have presented us with perhaps the best yet.
Ranked 28th in the world by FIFA – that’s a place beneath Scotland – Costa Rica added a thoroughly deserved victory over Italy to their 3-1 lesson they handed Uruguay a week ago in Fortaleza.
So, with England limping home and Italy and Uruguay left to scrap for Group D survival next week, Jorge Luis Pinto and his remarkable team are through to the knockout phase of a tournament they were supposed to have no hope in with a game to spare.
They have been here before. Twenty four years to the day they beat Sweden in Italy to qualify for the last sixteen. That, though, does absolutely nothing to detract from this astonishing achievement.
How humiliating for England to have to face them now next week. Roy Hodgson and his players are staring at a hat-trick of defeats and on this evidence it’s entirely possible.
At 5.10pm on Friday afternoon London time, FA chairman Greg Dyke was declaring Hodgson’s job safe. Less than half an hour later Fulham’s Bryan Ruiz was scoring Costa Rica’s winning goal here to effectively send England home.
Italy were dreadful, worse than England have been in either of their games. To think Hodgson had hoped he could rely on them for rescue. Costa Rica, though, took advantage of Italian lethargy in splendid, energetic fashion.
At the end, Pinto and his staff poured on to the field, almost overwhelmed by what they had just seen. A deeply religious group representing a nation of just 5.5m people, this victory goes right to the heart of Costa Rican national identity. This was pure and brilliant sporting theatre but back home it will mean more than that.
The underdogs had to survive a little piece of injustice to dig out this victory, too. Just before they scored their goal, they were denied a clear penalty as Joel Campbell – he of Arsenal - profited from Giorgio Chiellini’s slip to dash in to the area where the lumbering Italian brought him down.
Astonishingly the Chilean referee – a good thirty yards behind the action - waved play on. Costa Rican protests were loud and prolonged and with good reason. Many of the 40,000 crowd howled their derision, too.
Pinto’s team didn’t sulk, though. A couple of minutes later Chiellini was all over the place again as he got stuck beneath a Oscar Duarte cross to the far post and Ruiz headed in via the underside of the bar.
Queue something approaching hysteria on the Costa Rica bench with coach Pinto pointing to the heavens to indicate justice. At that stage it already looked a long way back for Italy – such were their labours – and so it proved.
Italy made a change at half-time as Antonio Cassano replaced Thiago Motta and the Euro 2012 finalists did go on to dominate possession in the early stages of the second period.
They struggled to create clear chances, though. Balotelli was having one of those games when he looked like he had never played before and only a raking drive from Matteo Darmin and a Pirlo free-kick really caused Navas any concern at all. On both occasions the Levante goalkeeper diverted the ball to safety.
In truth, Italy never really looked like scoring and their afternoon ended with Balotelli and Lorenzi Insigne arguing after the substitute had ballooned a late half chance over the bar.
Afterwards, Pinto said: 'We have played a historic team with wonderful players.
'Our team feels proud and our country feels proud.
'We hope we will win against England because this will be positive for our team and our country.'
His team now have five days to prepare for what could be another historic game against England. They will have their hearts set on a clean sweep now.
Italy and Uruguay, meanwhile, will wait anxiously. England, for their part, now know that it never does any good to rely on a rival for a favour.
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