The group stage round at the FIFA World Cup 2022 got over on Saturday. In Group H, Portugal and South Korea qualified for the last 16 while Uruguay and Ghana were ousted. Portugal topped the group with two wins and six points in total. South Korea and Uruguay were tied at four points and the goal difference was also equal but the former qualified to the round of 16 having scored two more goals than Uruguay in the group stage.
Uruguay won 2-0 against Ghana in their last group stage match on Friday but their shocking exit despite winning , didn’t go down well with their players. The Uruguayan players stirred a controversy as they got involved in a scuffle with German referee Daniel Siebert after the match ended. The video of angry Uruguay players pushing, shoving and verbally harassing the referee up to the tunnel, got viral on social media.
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The reason behind the entire incident was Uruguay’s displeasure over not being awarded a penalty stroke by the referee in the 57th minute after alleged foul on Uruguayan footballer Darwin Nunez by Ghana’s defender Daniel Amartey inside the box. The referee didn’t overturn his decision of not allowing the penalty even after being asked to review it by Video Assistant Referees(VAR). Had the penalty been awarded, Uruguay would have secured a goal difference of one over South Korea and advanced to the last 16 on the back of it.
Meanwhile Uruguay’s Edinson Cavani and Jose Maria Gimenez were shown yellow cards for their post-match scuffle with the referee. Urguguayan Star player Luis Suarez was seen in tears after the shocking exit from the World Cup, as it could be his last participation in the marquee tournament.
On the other side, South Korea were jubilant after entering the last 16 for the first time since 2010.
