This is becoming a dream come true for Costa Rica.
Costa Rica continues on their fairytale-like progress for the World Cup as they qualify for their first-ever quarterfinal in history. Greece, on the other hand, will go home with the integrity that they had a draw within ninety minutes of full time. But the fact that Los Ticos goalkeeper ended the Greece campaign cannot be shaken, though.
While Costa Rica has gone their way up to the top impressively of the Group of Death (Group D) against the likes of Uruguay, England, and Italy; on the other hans, their opponent, the Greeks, seemed like surprise technical victors from the Group C, winning against Ivory Coast, drawing with Japan, and settling next to Colombia.
Greece and Costa Rica both started the game in a hot summer afternoon. The Greeks started off with a slow start, while the Los Ticos are notorious for their lightning fast counter-attacks. The 2004 European champions looked terrified of even going on the field.
The boring Greek tactics have gained infamy in the Arena Pernambuco, but the Costa Ricans haven't scored in the first half as well. The first goal of the match happened in the 52nd minute, as Brian Ruiz of Los Ticos manages to goal on the side of the net. Shortly after, the team loses Oscar Duarte in an red card.
The Greeks now put up an obvious fight against the leading team. However, the last breath for the match was almost inhaled before Socratis Papastathopoulos managed an equalizer in the 90th minute.
Just when you think that it's over, the game just started to get more interesting. In the 30 minutes of extra time, the two teams raced into a consecutive race to the leading score. Celso Borges of Costa first scored, followed by Greek Konstantinos Mitroglou, then Ruiz, then Lazaros Christodoulopoulos, then Giancarlo Gonzales, Jose Holebas, Joel Campbell.
However, a great big save from the Costa Rican goalkeeper Keylor Navas decided that Costa Rica will advance. He denied Theofanis Gekas' shot, then Costa Rican Michael Umana closed the game with a point, making the score into a 5-3 win for Costa Rica.
