Right, that's it from me. Stick around on site for all the reports and reaction. Cheerio!
A turgid 90 minutes gave way to a thrilling half hour of extra time and a dramatic penalty shootout as Costa Rica secured their place in the quarter-finals
Updated
Sun 29 Jun 2014 19.01 EDT
First published on Sun 29 Jun 2014 14.30 EDT
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So it's Holland v Costa Rica for a place in the World Cup semi-finals. You have to wonder what kind of shape Los Ticos will be in come Saturday, given the effort expended tonight but they won't be too worried about that just now.
Costa Rica win 5-3 on penalties
A quite superb display of penalty taking ends with Umana sending another sweetly struck spot-kick fizzing past Karnezis, who only really got close to one of the five. Gekas is the villain for Greece, but this is Costa Rica's moment. Sensational stuff.
GOAL! Costa Rica 5-3 Greece Umana walks up to the spot without the ball. Has to turn and receive it. Pressure. Pressure. Pressure … AND HE'S DONE IT! COSTA RICA ARE THROUGH!
SAVED! Costa Rica 4-3 Greece The veteran Gekas draws a stunning save from Navas! Costa Rica have the next kick to win it …
GOAL! Costa Rica 4-3 Greece Campbell drags himself from the halfway line … and insouciantly sends Karnezis the wrong way. A very laid-back effort.
GOAL! Costa Rica 3-3 Greece The brilliant Cholevas sends yet another fantastic penalty whistling past Navas. Six out of six thus far.
GOAL! Costa Rica 3-2 Greece Gonzalez, brilliant in extra-time, slams the ball down the middle. That was saveable but Karnezis just went a touch too early.
GOAL! Costa Rica 2-2 Greece Christodoulopoulos, looks nervy … but coolly slots home after waiting for Navas to commit himself.
GOAL! Costa Rica 2-1 Greece Ruiz, the captain, also roofs the thing. That was a cracker.
GOAL! Costa Rica 1-1 Greece Mitroglou calmly sends Navas the wrong way.
GOAL! Costa Rica 1-0 Greece After an interminable wait, the midfielder roofs the ball straight down the middle. Fine penalty.
PENALTIES
Right then, here we go. Costa Rica will take first. Celso Borges takes responsibility …
Two ends of the stadium chanting ``aqui/ here'' in effort to get pens on their side. #GRE #CRC
— tariq panja (@tariqpanja) June 29, 2014
Fernando Santos seems to have been sent off! For arguing over the ends it looks like. Blimey.
What an ending. Both sets of players gave it everything – Bryan Ruiz appeared to be running in treacle in the final seconds.
PEEP! PEEP!! PEEEEEEP!!! Penalties it is, then. Extra-time was fantastic, every bit as entertaining as the opening hour had been stodgy. But everyone knows, if starts to fast it'll end real slow.
120+2 min: What a save! Keylor Navas has kept his side in the World Cup. Mitroglou was through, made a decent contact on a bobbling ball, but the keeper's hip is in the right place to turn the ball aside.
120+1 min: No one can run! This is bizarre, the game is almost being played in slow motion.
120 min: Corner to Greece. Cholevas exhaustedly clumps it at the first defender. Two minutes of added time.
118 min: Costa Rica's turn to break, but Campbell seems to be too tired to lift his legs to control a pass. Greece break at speed … and Mitroglou shoots and sends the ball off towards Saturn.
117 min: … driven in, nodded away, back out to Cholevas. Who is offside.
116 min: Cholevas surges past Acosta, who just about gets back to tow the ball out for a corner …
115 min: Samaras dinks a cross into the box … Navas is backpeddling … but he grabs it.
113 min: Oh my word! A five on two break for Greece! Five on two! They should really work something better than an angled effort from Christodoulopoulos that Navas punched clear.
112 min: Cubero cuts back from the touchline. Campbell can't get a flick on it, but a Greece defender skews over the bar.
111 min: "That was terribly lazy from Brenes," writes Karl Mulloney. "Through on goal, one of two chances they'll have in extra time, and he just swung at it. He came on well into the second half, should be fresher than that." It was almost as if the tiredness was contagious.
110 min: Campbell, socks rolled down, shin pads a-flappin, wins a free-kick for his team. The end result is a Gonzalez over-head kick of no great note.
108 min: Navas times his charge off the line perfectly to pinch the ball from the toes of Gekas. He takes a whack in the knee for his troubles.
107 min: "I'm no tactical expert," writes Jerry Parks, "but it appears that in Gekas and Mitroglu Greece are pioneering the use of a revolutionary double False 9 system, where two players pretend to be footballers in order to distract the defense and free up space for the rest of team. It's a pity Fulham couldn't keep Mitroglu and Berbatov together in order to try it at club level."
106 min: Oof! Brenes gets beyond the last man and sends his shot fizzing a yard wide of the top corner. That's the best chance Costa Rica have had in an age.
Peep! Off we go for the final time.
Peep! Costa Rica have survived the first-half. But that's all they've done. You get the sense that the only way they're going to win this now is on penalties.
105 min: Gonzalez has been immense this evening. Another towering header keeps Costa Rica in it.
104 min: Costa Rica are briefly able to rouse themselves. Breres is put through by Campbell, but he can't find Ruiz with his pull-back.
103 min: OK, he's maybe not that tired.
102 min: Cubero is very lucky to win a free-kick off Mitroglou as he spins riskily on the edge of his own box. Up front, Joel Campbell looks utterly spent. I think I might beat him in a sprint for the ball at this stage.
100 min: … it's whipped in by Cholevas and sparks an almighty scramble. Greece seem to have two or three extra men, not just one. In the end Gonzalez makes a superb block to deny Katsouranis.
99 min: Dominguez taps the ball away from Samaras, but the referee awards Greece a free-kick …
97 min: A hot knife through butter? A flaming chainsaw through margerine more like. Greece are tearing through Costa Rica at every opportunity. Los Ticos midfield three can't seem to offer their back four any protection. Another Greece corner sparks panic, but the whistle goes to provide some respite.
96 min: Christodoulopoulos skips past two tired tackles but his final ball is dire.
94 min: At the moment, this doesn't seem a case of "if" Greece score but "when". Another glorious Torosidis cross is touched on by Mitroglou then pings away for a goal-kick of the unsuspecting face of Gekas.
93 min: Christodoulopoulos thunders onto a loose ball on the edge of the box and just can't resist lashing a shot at goal even though he knows it's bouncing awkwardly in front of him. The ball, predictably, disappears into the terraces behind the goal.
91 min: Torosidis curls in a cross so dangerous it likes its meals served with fava beans and a nice chianti. Umana just gets a toe to the ball ahead of Mitroglou.
Peep! Off we go once more.
All match I've been trying to shoe-horn linesman Matt Cream into an entry. Extra-time is tiring for officials too – is he whipped? No, you're right – it wasn't worth it.
I'm not sure about the officials but the Costa Ricans do look exhausted. All the momentum is in Greece's favour.
"This was my reaction," writes Tim Yorath:
Peep! PEEEEP!! PEEEEEEEEP!!! That's it! Or, more accurately, that's not it! Extra-time to come.
90+5 min: Karagounis belts into Campbell and gives away a daft free-kick.
90+4 min: And Navas is now down getting treatment.
90+3 min: What a save! Mitroglou flicks a header goalwards. Navas leaps to tip the ball over the bar!
90+2 min: Umana almost slices a kneed clearance over Navas. There's only one winner at this moment in time.
GOAL! Costa Rica 1-1 Greece (Papastathopoulos 91)
But Greece only need one! Gekas's effort on the turn is saved by Navas, but he can only paw the ball out to the centre half who powers the ball home for his first international goal. Heartbreak for Costa Rica.
90 min: We'll have a minimum of FIVE minutes of injury time.
89 min: Cholevas gets on the end of Samaras's flick on, but can't pull the ball back from the touchline.
87 min: Christodoulopoulos does superbly down the right, beating Diaz and then fizzing a low cross into the six-yard box. Navas can't grab it first time, but nor can Mitroglou trap it and the ball bounces back into the keeper's hands.
86 min: Lovely stuff from Ruiz. He calmly swerves away from a couple of tackles and heads for the corner flag. Karagounis bundles into him and concedes a free-kick that'll munch up a few more valuable seconds.
85 min: Another Greece corner sparks a bit of panic in the box, but Costa Rica have the chance to break. Acosta, though, can only wang his attempted cross-field ball back into Greek possession.
83 min: Brenes replaces Bolanos.
83 min: A stunning ball from Torosidis puts Gekas in behind the Costa Rica back four, but he can't quite tame the ball and it dribbles away for a goal kick.
82 min: … lofted in by Cholevas, nodded over by Manolas. Tick-tock, tick-tock …
81 min: Samaras turns away from a couple of challenges and picks up yet another free-kick. He was the most fouled player in the group stages, by the way, and he's picked up a few more tonight. Anyway, dangerous free-kick …
79 min: Karagounis hammers a free-kick … five, perhaps 10, yards over the bar.
77 min: And Katsouranis is on for Maniatis.
76 min: Gamboa, being shoved and nudged off by Greece players irked by his gentle amble to the touchline, is eventually off. Acosta comes on.
75 min: Cholevas again gets down the left and fizzes in a cross. It takes a bobble and a deflection, so Gekas isn't ready for the ball to find him at knee height. It trickles out for a goal kick. Costa Rica are wobbling.
74 min: Bolanos dinks in the free-kick. Manolas heads away. And Campbell is penalised for what seemed to be a non-existent handball.
72 min: Manolas flies through Campbell and is the latest name to go into the book. It's getting very feisty out there.
71 min: Navas flaps at a cross and his defenders have to bail him out. Replays show three Greece forwards offside.
70 min: Ruiz nods the ball away before a Greece free-kick. Williams, who is increasingly struggling to keep a lid on things, flashes the yellow card.
68 min: Salpingidis goes off. Theo Gekas is on.
67 min: Cholevas whips in the free-kick, Samaras glances a header wide. What a chance Greece now have to get back into it. "Greece having to attack is a bit like asking Monty Python to be serious for a bit," writes Justin Kavanagh.
RED CARD!
66 min: Oscar Duarte picks up a second booking and is off. Cholevas charges past him and is upended by the centre half. He's off!
65 min: Cubero replaces Tejera.
63 min: And, the world is telling me, that was what Granados was complaining about to pick up his booking.
62 min: Fernando Santos isn't a happy man. His arguing over a throw-in draws the attention of the fourth official. He shouldn't be too annoyed with the officials – just after the goal Torosidis missed a header and the ball dropped onto his hand. Other officials might have given Costa Rica a penalty.
60 min: "Greece's small thermal exhaust port is known as the Achilles Vent," honks Niall Mullen.
59 min: Manolas punts a long ball from the back straight out for a Costa Rican goal kick. The response to the goal doesn't bode well for Greece fans.
57 min: On comes Kostas Mitroglou, with Samaris heading off.
56 min: "Karnezis was in carbon freeze," writes Dan Nooter of the Costa Rica goal. It was a strange one – he didn't move, but he had time to learn to knit, write a novella and bake a batch of muffins before the ball trickled over the line. The reaction suggests that Ruiz mis-hit the shot and was aiming for the other corner.
55 min: Trouble here. Costa Rica substitute goalkeeper Oscar Granados is booked for reasons as yet unclear.
53 min: That came out of nowhere. Now what have Greece got?
GOAL! Costa Rica 1-0 Greece (Ruiz 52)
Campbell finds Bolanos. Bolanos rolls the ball across the edge of the box. And Ruiz curls his shot low into the corner! The Costa Rican X-wing has fired a proton torpedo into Greece's small thermal exhaust port.
51 min: Uncle Sepp's mug appears on the big screen. Cue boos from the crowd.
50 min: … but it comes to nothing.
49 min: The full-backs are proving Greece's best attacking outlet. Cholevas in particular is causing a few problems and he's won a corner for his team here …
47 min: Tejeda goes into the book for a thunking challenge on Karagounis.
46 min: Cholevas dinks in another tasty cross, this time from a free-kick. Samaras leaps highest but his header is straight at Navas.
Peep! According to the official Fifa statistics there were 25 "dangerous attacks" in that first half. I'm dubious about their definition of "dangerous". And of "attacks" for that matter. But still, off we go again with hope in our hearts and a song on our lips.
So, it's not been great. The Greece Death Shed is standing firm and they've actually posed more of a goal threat than Costa Rica. Fernando Santos will be the happier manager at the break.
PEEEEEP!! That's that. And there are quite a few boos and whistles from the terraces as the players trudge off.
45+1 min: The busiest man on the pitch thus far has been the linesman running the Costa Rican defensive line. He's at risk of RSI. Greece are caught offside yet again – the sixth time this half.
45 min: Two minutes of added time to play.
43 min: … Karagounis chips in, Navas claims it.
42 min: Duarte pulls down Christodoulopoulos on the edge of the box, picking up a booking for his trouble. Decent chance for Greece this …
41 min: Ruiz drops a little deeper to pick up the ball and orchestrate an attack. His team-mates aren't helping him hold the ball, though.
39 min: "It's not only MBMers that have to deal with difficult names," writes Ray Wells. "Spare a thought for the man who calls out the names on University Challenge (they even had to use a smaller type for the guy top left)."
37 min: What a save! Cholevas swings in a ball so delicious it should come served with a side salad. Salpingidis is charging in at the back post and makes a sweet contact six yards out, but Navas sticks out a leg and turns the ball aside. Brilliant stuff from the keeper.
35 min: Campbell is chopped down in midfield by Andreas Samaris. The midfielder becomes the first name in the referee's Big Book Of Bad Men.
33 min: Costa Rica's three central defenders have a minute or two of passing practice between themselves. If you were contemplating the most likely outcome at this stage, extra-time and penalties would be a fairly strong contender.
31 min: Campbell swings a corner. Karnezis, under no pressure, plucks the ball from the air.
29 min: Cholevas rumbles forward and dinks in a fine cross that somehow evades Samaras in the box. And as the ball comes back in Samaras is caught offside for the umpteenth time.
28 min: It's a nightmare moment for MBMers worldwide as Papastathopoulos finds Christodoulopoulos with a long ball. The ball is worked across the box and Karagounis sends in a bouncing-bomb of a shot that Navas deals with without fuss.
26 min: Campbell almost spins away from Papastathopoulos, but the Greece defender is strong enough to hold him off.
25 min: Another corner, this time a Greek one after Torosidis's diagonal pass is cut out by Gonzalez. Karagounis pings it in. Headed clear.
24 min: Loose control. Tackle. Loose control. Tackle. Loose control. Tackle …
22 min: … softly lobbed in by Bolanos. Borges, thundering in, can't quite make contact.
21 min: … taken short and worked back to Joel Campbell. He outfoxes the 112-year-old Karagounis, who brings him down right on the edge of the box. Dangerous free-kick …
20 min: A backheel from Ruiz finds Gamboa, but Maniatis has tracked the run. The cross is blocked but it's a Costa Rica corner …
19 min: Campbell forces the ball through to Ruiz on the left, but the Fulham man's ball across is a hopeful one. Manolas, I think, is there to mop up.
17 min: Things haven't really caught fire yet in Recife. "Surely Polish names such as Jakub Blaszczykowski are harder to type?" writes Andrew Goudie. "'McManaman' would be my favourite to type were it not for the intercapping.'Pele' is OK." I've always found Jaaskelainen my favourite name to type. Somehow it just works. Jaaskelainen. Jaaskelainen. Jaaskelainen. Lovely.
15 min: Karagounis swings the corner in, Papastathopoulos gets his noggin to it first but under pressure he can't make a clean contact.
14 min: Samaras chests down beautifully for his team-mate who wears the No16. He wins a corner …
12 min: Typo-in-waiting Christodoulopoulos cuts inside from the left, but drags his shot wide. As good as anything Greece have mustered thus far really.
11 min: Greece get their collective foot on the ball for the first time since the opening seconds. Torosidis finds Samaras, but the Celtic man is a millimetre offside.
9 min: "Greece is like the Millwall of international football. No one likes, but we don't care," writes Alex Sakalis. "Let's go Hellas."
7 min: Chance for Bolanos! Campbell skitters through midfield, tumbles, but the ball runs for Ruiz, who feeds the Copenhagen midfielder. He thrashes a shot over from the left edge of the box. Los Ticos have made the better start here.
5 min: Another dangerous break from Costa Rica, but Campbell and Ruiz muddle things up and a Greek boot comes in to break things up.
4 min: Great noise from the pocket of Greece fans behind their goal. "Hellas! Hellas!" is the chant. But they're given a scare here – the right wing-back Cristian Gamboa storms forward into the box, but drags his shot wide.
3 min: "With the Greek lineup, It brings to mind a question I've had for a while," begins Dave Hill. "Do you have a list of Greek names on a separate sheet that you cut and paste, or are you an incredibly fast typist?" Neither I'm afraid. I might just have to call players "The Greece No19" or similar.
2 min: … Karagounis beats the wall but not the first defender in the box. It drops out to Christodoulopoulos, who smashes the ball over the bar from distance.
1 min: Torosidis romps forward, as is his wont. He finds Samaras inside, and Greece have an early free-kick …
Peep! Off we go then. Greece are all in blue, Los Ticos in all white.
An email: "Greetings from a Canadian reader in a rather desolate Montevideo, Uruguay, where there's hardly a soul in the streets," writes Michael Ireton. "Granted, it's a Sunday in what passes for the dead of winter here, but I can't help but feel that yesterday's game and the whole sordid Suarez business have something to do with the municipal mood today.
"Anyway, for the Fulham supporter like me, today's match seems like a veritable intra-squad training session at Motspur Park. The ageless wonder Giorgios Karagounis was a bit of a cult hero at Craven Cottage in 2012-13...only to be let go at the end of the season...only to rejoin the cub for 2013-14...only to be released again. Then there's Kostas Mitroglou--Fulham's record signing who managed to appear in three matches this year.
And finally we have Bryan Ruiz. Everything about Fulham's 2013-14 season was either his fault or Martin Jol's ... even after both were long gone.
"If only the winner could somehow face the USA and Clint Dempsey..."
Click-clack, click-clack … the teams emerge from the tunnel, the ball is plucked from its plinth and the thousands in Recife stand for the national anthems.
Tonight's referee is … Benjamin Williams of Australia. His assistants are Hakan Anaz and Matt Cream, who has romped to the Linesman Who Mosts Sounds Like A Tin Of Paint award. They're the first set of Australian officials to referee in the World Cup knockout stages, so there's a little slice of history made.
The teams
Costa Rica (3-4-2-1): Navas; Duarte, Gonzalez, Umana; Gamboa, Tejeda, Borges, Diaz; Ruiz, Bolanos; Campbell.
Greece (4-3-2-1): Karnezis; Torosidis, Manolas, Papastathopoulos, Cholevas; Maniatis, Samaris, Karagounis; Salpingidis, Christodoulopoulos; Samaras.
So Costa Rica return to the line-up that faced Uruguay and Italy. Joel Campbell leads the line, with Bryan Ruiz floating behind and Christian Bolanos looking to provide attacking thrust from the left. Yeltsin Tejeda and Celso Borges provide the central protection for the back three.
Greece – and this would appear to be good news for the neutral – have stuck with the team that brought success against the Ivory Coast, with the only change Andreas Samaris coming in to make his first start of the tournament in midfield, (though he came on after 12 minutes against the Ivorians anyway). That means Georgios Samaras will carry the burden in the lone striker's role. He'll be reliant on Lazaros Christodoupoulos and Dimitros Salpingidis offering support from the wings.
Preamble
What a World Cup then, eh? Record numbers of goals, incredible late drama, thrilling attacking football and at least half a dozen strikes that will feature in future World Cup Best Of DVDs. the knockout matches wouldn't compete with the group stage we thought. Then Brazil v Chile went to penalties, James Rodriguez did that against Uruguay, and Holland smashed and grabbed in the dying seconds against Mexico.
There's just so much to enjoy, so much to reinvigorate your love of the game. And that's all well and good. But we need a Bad Guy. No great stories have ever featured solely heroes. Superman needed Lex Luther, Holmes needed Moriarty, John McClane needed Hans Gruber. And this World Cup needs Greece. Greece are like the Death Star. If the Death Star were a shed. The Death Shed if you will. Dull, functional, terrifying.
But, whisper it, this Greek team were actually rather entertaining against the Ivory Coast. It was all a little incongruous, as if Death Shed High Command had instigated a weekly Funny Tie Friday or encouraged their Stormtroopers to join the volunteering scheme at the local school, but it was there for all to see – lively, enterprising, counter-attacking football. Yes, they were dire against Colombia and, yes, they were perhaps even worse against Japan, but somehow there's something endearing about them. They're giving a crisis-weary nation an injection of hope and pride. They offered to fly 11-year-old Jay Beatty over to Brazil. They've asked for their World Cup bonuses to be used to build a new training centre.
And even if all that's not enough to persuade you of a late Darth-Vader-style he's-not-so-bad-after-all about turn, the great thing about the true Bad Guys is that you know they're going to get their comeuppance in the end. Surely. Surely. Surely? As a friend put it to me the other day, nobody's ever won the World Cup without scoring in the knockout stages. YET.
Costa Rica are more than capable of playing the loveable Ewoks to Greece's giant grey floating space globe. With England's exiting and Suárez going dental, Los Ticos didn't really get the credit they deserved for topping the group. It can't be emphasised enough that they were the best team in that group. It was no fluke. Last time (and the only time) they reached this stage they were on the receiving end of a Tomas Skuhravy hat-trick and a 4-1 shellacking from Czechoslovakia at Italia 90. This time around they should – should – reach the quarter-finals for the first time.
If Greece win, you know it's going to be in some awful, awful, wonderful, awful way. If Costa Rica win, their fantastic story gets another chapter. All things considered, I can't wait for this.