World Cup quarter-final time, is it? Marvellous. Superb part of the tournament, the quarter-final days. The wheat has by this point been sorted from the chaff. Despite what Southgate-sceptics will tell you, there are no easy World Cup quarter-finals.
But they’re not always great games. Often they can be cagey, the enormity of what’s at stake creating inevitable tension. But lots of them are superb, and our unscientific gut instinct is that pound-for-pound they outperform their flashier, showier semi-final cousins.
Here’s five good ones, picked not by any definitive or scientific means but because we like them. The fact the list contains as much shithousery as it does brilliance is entirely through choice.
Uruguay 1-1 Ghana (Uruguay win 4-2 on pens), 2010
Is it possible that Maradona’s is only the second biggest shithouse handball in a World Cup quarter-final? Incredible concept, but probably true.
Ghana were bidding to become the first African side to reach the semi-finals and were giving a fine account of themselves against the more-fancied Uruguayans. Sulley Muntari put them 1-0 up on the stroke of half-time, only for Diego Forlan to equalise 10 minutes into the second half.
But really all this was nothing more than setting the scene for the final moments of extra-time. Ghana had ended normal time in the ascendancy and this continued in the added 30 minutes without the Black Stars quite managing to create the clear opportunity with which they could make history. Until…
Ghana were awarded a free-kick on the edge of the box with seconds remaining. John Pantsil clipped it into the box and Kevin-Prince Boateng gave it the little eyebrows. The ball fell to Stephen Appiah whose shot was cleared off the line. Dominic Adiyiah headed the ball back towards goal and looked set to be sending Ghana through until Luis Suarez, already football’s designated villain, stuck out a hand and made a goalline save. He was sent off. Ghana had a penalty.
Asamoah Gyan missed the spot-kick, his 10th unsuccessful attempt on goal of the game, and as Suarez celebrated the success of his antics, the result of the shoot-out was inevitable. Asamoah at least managed to score in the shoot-out, but with an added twist of cruelty it was Adiyiah, having been so cruelly denied a place in football history, who produced Ghana’s second and decisive miss.
Netherlands 2-1 Argentina, 1998
Hopefully we’ll get something half as good as this one in 2022’s reprise of a…
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