FORTALEZA (Brazil): Costa Rica pulled off the biggest upset of the World Cup so far, scoring three second-half goals to come from behind and beat former champions Uruguay 3-1 in their opening Group D match early on Saturday (Sunday in India).
Their promising young striker Joel Campbell set them on the way, chesting down a cross from the right on 54 minutes and slamming home a low shot to cancel out Edinson Cavani’s first- half penalty.
Centre back Oscar Duarte gave Costa Rica the lead in the 57th minute with a brave diving header at the back post from a Christian Bolanos free kick.
Substitute Marco Urena completed one of most memorable victories in his country’s modest footballing history with a third in the 84th minute, silencing an army of sky blue-clad Uruguayan fans in Fortaleza’s Castelao arena.
To compound Uruguay’s misery, defender Maxi Pereira became the first man to be sent off at this World Cup when he was shown a straight red for upending Campbell with a nasty kick to the shin in stoppage time.
The result left Uruguay’s World Cup ambitions in disarray in this, one of the toughest groups in the competition.
They face England in Sao Paulo next while the jubilant Costa Ricans, who have only once made it out of the group stages at a World Cup, travel to Recife to take on Italy.
It was all so different in the first half.
The Uruguayans controlled much of the play and made the breakthrough on 24 minutes when Diego Lugano went down in the box under pressure from Costa Rica defender Junior Diaz as he tried to get on the end of a free kick.
Diaz clearly had his arms around the waist of his opponent but even so the Uruguayan captain made a meal of the challenge.
Nevertheless, German referee Felix Brych pointed to the spot and Cavani slammed home the penalty, beating Costa Rica’s highly-rated goalkeeper Keylor Navas at his left post.
But even then there were signs of what was to come after the break.
The Costa Ricans looked sharp on the counter-attack and particularly good from set pieces, forcing a number of corners and troubling keeper Fernando Muslera with their aerial threat.
With his side trailing 2-1, Uruguay coach Oscar Tabarez sent Luis Suarez out of the dug out to warm up, although in the end he chose not to throw him on as a substitute.
But the South Americans will be hoping Suarez, one of the best strikers in the world, will be fully recovered from his knee surgery for the remaining group matches. (Reuters)