One of the most infamous moments in 2010 World Cup history was when Uruguay striker Luis Suarez intentionally stopped a sure shot goal by Ghana’s Dominic Adiyiah by using his hands in a quarterfinal match. At that moment, the score was tied 1-1 and had that ball gone into the net, Ghana would have qualified for the next round. Suarez was red carded and Ghana given a penalty as pandemonium ensued. Ghana’s Asamoah Gyan stepped up to take the penalty and in a cruel twist of fate, missed as the camera panned to Suarez, who was captured celebrating wildly with his teammates. Ultimately, Ghana succumbed to Uruguay in a penalty shootout and were eliminated from the World Cup.
Luis Suarez has refused to apologise for deliberately stopping a goal-bound ball with his hands during Uruguay’s 2010 World Cup quarter-final with Ghana.
Suarez was asked about the incident – which denied Ghana an extra-time winner and ultimately sent them crashing out of the 2010 tournament – during his press-conference earlier today.
Instead of apologising for his actions, Suarez blamed Asamoah Gyan for missing the subsequent penalty and said their exit from the tournament was not his fault.
“I didn’t say sorry because I did the handball but Ghana’s player missed the penalty, not me,” Suarez said.
“Maybe I would apologise if I tackled and injured a player but in this situation, I took the red card, the referee gave a penalty and it’s not my fault because I didn’t miss the penalty.
“You saw that the player who missed the penalty said he’d do the same. It’s not my responsibility to take the penalty.”
“I don’t know what people are saying about whether they are looking at this as revenge,” he added. “Back [in 2010], these players that will play tomorrow, some of them were eight years old.
“Some people might say that I am the devil himself but we can’t misunderstand things. We played against Portugal in 2018 and won against them. Have you heard Portuguese players saying we need revenge?
“Look at what I did with [Giorgio] Chiellini: yes, I made a mistake with what I did but I played against him afterwards and we shook hands, we played in the Champions League. We can’t just keep thinking about the past.”
On Friday, the Africans will take on the South Americans in the last match of the Group stage in the 2022 World Cup with a spot in the last 16 at stake knowing a draw should be enough to take them through at their rivals’ expense.
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