Uruguay beat South Korea, reach last eight

Uruguay reached the World Cup quarter-finals on Saturday after beating South Korea 2-1 in Port Elizabeth.

Luis Suarez netted after eight minutes only for Lee Chung-Yong to head the Koreans level in the 68th minute. But Suarez drove in the winner ten minutes from time to book a meeting with either the United States or Ghana.

South Korea, semi-finalists in 2002 on home soil, began well against the 1930 and 1950 champions at the Nelson Mandela Bay stadium, a superbly-taken freekick by Park Chu Young from 25 metres coming back off keeper Fernando Muslera’s right-hand post in the fifth minute.

But the Uruguayans promptly took the lead.

Edinson Cavani floated a high ball over to the left for Diego Forlan and he slipped his marker to drill a slide-rule pass across the Korean goalmouth.

Keeper Jung Sung Ryong could have dealt with the danger but reacted slowly and Suarez netted from a tight angle.

Back came the Koreans and Lee headed in midway through the second half as the rain poured down only for Suarez to fire home a superb winner in the 80th minute.