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Costa Rica beat Italy 1-0 to confirm England Exit

Published

10 years ago

June 20, 2014

Costa Rica produced another huge upset to reach the knockout stages of the World Cup for the second time on Friday with Bryan Ruiz’s goal securing a 1-0 Group D win over Italy that also ensured England were eliminated.
Ruiz headed powerfully home a minute before halftime to leave Costa Rica fans dancing in the sunshine at Recife’s Pernambuco arena.
“We kept up our heads. It was a beautiful match… The people of Costa Rica deserve this. They supported the team and me. This was for them,” said ecstatic coach Jorge Luis Pinto.
Costa Rica top the group with six points, having already beaten Uruguay in their first game, while Italy, three points adrift, now need at least a draw from their final game against Uruguay, also on three points, to go through on goal difference.
“We knew this would be a particularly tough group. We will try to recover all our energy for the Uruguay game,” said Italy coach Cesare Prandelli.
“We didn’t get our tactics wrong. They were very, very aggressive and we were trying to find different ways into the game but we didn’t manage it.”