uruguay great Luis Suarez Ghana refused to apologize on Thursday to the people of Ghana over the infamous handball at the World Cup 12 years ago. The South Americans will take on the Africans in Qatar on Friday in a Group H tie that is a repeat of the infamous quarter-final in South Africa in 2010. target from Dominic Adeiahheader right at the end of extra time. Suarez was shown the red card but dispassionate knowledge The latter missed the penalty and Uruguay won the shoot-out to qualify for the semi-finals.
Striker Suárez became an overnight hero in his homeland, while Ghana narrowly missed out on becoming the first African team to reach the semi-finals of the World Cup.
Twelve years later, asked if he was aware that Ghanaians viewed him as a “devil”, Suárez said he had no regrets.
Speaking in broken English, Suarez said, “I don’t say that I apologize because I take the handball but the Ghanaian missed the penalty, not me.”
“Maybe I can say I’m sorry if I tackle a player and end up injured and get a red card, maybe I can say sorry.
“But in this situation I take a red card, the referee called ‘penalty’. It’s not my fault because I didn’t miss the penalty, the player missed the penalty.”
There has been much talk since the World Cup draw about Ghana’s possible revenge and many fans of the African team have vented their anger at Suarez ahead of the crunch clash.
But Suarez insisted the game was in the past and there was no point in talking about revenge.
“Those who are talking about revenge … there were eight at the time, they have only seen it in images,” said the former Barcelona and Liverpool forward, now 35.
“You can’t misinterpret everything. When we played against Portugal, the players were talking about avenging the loss (to Uruguay in 2018) but you can’t live in the past.”
uruguay coach diego Alonso said there was much more at stake for both teams than retribution.
Uruguay must win to have any chance of progressing to the last 16, while Ghana could also be knocked out if they do not win.
“I don’t know how Ghana will approach it, whether it has changed or not,” Alonso said.
“For us it is a decisive match, that’s what matters to us. We are doing our best while respecting our opponents, but we don’t see it that way.”
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and was auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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