Stephen Dunmoye
A semi-final spot was up for grabs when Uruguay and Ghana met at Soccer City in South Africa.
Sulley Muntari put Ghana ahead, but Uruguay equalised through Diego Forlan and the match went to extra-time.
Penalties looked to be on the cards until some remarkable late drama.
As Ghana pushed for a winner, Steven Appiah had a shot that Suarez blocked on the line with his knee. The ball wasn’t cleared away and Dominic Adiyiah headed the rebound towards goal. Suarez was there again to block, but this time he did so with both hands, pushing the ball off the line.
Even though it was in the days before VAR the referee spotted the clear handball and sent Suarez off. He also gave a penalty to Ghana.
Suarez looked emotional as he walked off the pitch, thinking his diving stop wouldn’t save Uruguay.
“I walked off the pitch devastated,” he said in his autobiography Crossing the Line.
“I was crying and the only thing going through my head at that point was, ‘We’re going out of the World Cup, we’re going out of the World Cup …’ I had been sent off and we were going home.”
But despair soon turned to delight and Suarez was seen celebrating after Ghana’s Asamoah Gyan fired his penalty against the crossbar.
The game then went to penalties and Uruguay won 4-2 to prevent Ghana becoming the first African team to reach the World Cup semi-finals.
Suarez, who started Uruguay’s first game in Qatar and was a substitute in the second, didn’t appear remorseful at his actions.
“I made the best save of the tournament,” he said at the time. “Sometimes in training I play as a goalkeeper, so it was worth it.
“It was just instinct. Any player would have done the same – not just me.
“My first reaction was to use my hand. Some people have accused me of a lack of sportsmanship, but I think it’s worse if a player suffers an injury when he’s stopped by a bad tackle when he’s about to score.”
“The whole of Ghana hates him and the whole of Africa hates him,” former Ghana defender Ibrahim Ayew told The Athletic ahead of Friday’s rematch.
“We hate him. And we want revenge.”
Even when the draw for the groups at the World Cup was made, before there was so much riding on this final group game, there was a feeling that Ghana wanted payback.
“We believe it will be revenge time,” said Ghana Football Association president Kurt Okraku. “It is important that we all set the record straight.”