Ghana defender Daniel Amartey admits he was determined to deny Uruguay World Cup knockout stage
- Seb Sternik
- 3 December 2022
Ghana and Leicester City defender Daniel Amartey admitted he was determined to stop Uruguay from progressing to the World Cup knockout stage as revenge for their 2010 clash.
Uruguay and Ghana clashed in the quarter-final of the 2010 event, with Luis Suarez preventing a certain goal with a clear handball.
The African side went on the miss the resulting penalty and were eventually knocked out on penalties.
On this occasion, both teams were eliminated from the group stage, though it was Ghana who left with a feeling of vengeance.
Uruguay, who needed to win by three goals, could only muster a 2-0 victory as South Korea progressed to the knockout stage alongside group winners Portugal.
"I just told my team-mates that we need a goal now but they need a goal now, we have to defend for ourselves so that if we can't go, they don't go," Amartey said.
Asked if denying Uruguay a place in the last 16 was important for him, Amartey said: "For me, yes.
"It was tough because you can see their centre-back, everybody comes [forward]. Uruguay needed one goal to go through and you can see we defend four against five or three against two but we managed to defend."
In a cruel twist of fate, Andre Ayew - who was the sole survivor of Ghana's squad from 12 years ago - missed a penalty in the early stages of the match.
Amartey believes that his side could've gone on to win the match if they had taken the lead through Ayew.
He said: "It's football, it happens. If we score that penalty I think we [beat] them but we miss the penalty and you can see the game changed."
