Negative Uruguay inspired by Suarez

Uruguay were the first team through to the World Cup quarter-finals on Saturday with a 2-1 win over South Korea, but the South Americans were fortunate.

Oscar Tabarez’s men were the last team to qualify for the finals, but booked their place in the last eight after a piece of magic from Luis Suarez.

Suarez clipped Uruguay ahead early on and from there on in the workmanlike South Americans seemed happy to sit back and settle for a 1-0 win.

It didn’t make for a great spectacle, but South Korea huffed and puffed and finally got the breakthrough capitalising on an uncharacteristic piece of poor defending.

The Asian outfit had their tails up, but Suarez, who now has three goals in the race for the Golden Boot, conjured up a piece of magic of the sort that has been lacking at the World Cup so far.

The Ajax marksman curled a beauty of strike into the corner of the net after picking up the ball on the edge of the area to light up a pretty dour contest.

Whether Tabarez’s men can go any further, they face a quarter-final with Ghana, depends on their mentality.

As the tournament progresses it will prove more difficult to shut up shop and they may have to be more adventurous. They are 12/1 shots to go all the way and add to their two World Cup triumphs. If Suarez and Diego Forlan can stay in form they have a real chance of pulling off something special.