Suarez double leaves England on the brink

by Staff Reporter

Thursday Jun 19, 2014. 22:55

Liverpool striker Luis Suarez scored twice as Uruguay effectively knocked England out of the World Cup with a 2-1 victory in Sao Paulo on Thursday night.

The result means England must beat Costa Rica handsomely in their final pool match and hope that Italy beat both the latter and Uruguay in their final game to have a chance of making the second round.

Suarez headed the South American side in front in the first half, but Wayne Rooney scored his first World Cup goals in his third finals to earn England a point.

It looked as though the game would be headed for a draw before a mistake from Steven Gerrard allowed his Reds clubmate a run on goal and the Uruguayan forward made no mistake.

Rooney went close to giving England the lead from a free-kick that curled agonizingly wide of the post as they made the brighter start to the game.

The Manchester United star was then unlucky as he headed a cross onto the crossbar from no more than a yard out, just unable to get over the ball and steer it into the net.

Uruguay were ahead on 39 minutes though as Gerrard, who had a night to forget, lost possession in midfield and the ball was worked out to Edinson Cavani.

The Uruguayan’s teasing cross eluded the England defence and was perfect for Suarez to cushion the header past Joe Hart.

Cavani should have made it 2-0 when he had just Hart to beat, but put his side-footed shot well wide just after halftime.

Rooney had seen an earlier shot well saved before he finally did equalize on 75 minutes.

Glen Johnson showed excellent determination to burst into the Uruguay box on the right and his pass was put on a plate for Rooney to score.

England actually looked the most likely to get the next goal after that, but it was the South Americans who profited from their mistake.

A long ball was not cleared with his head by Gerrard, again the villain, and Suarez raced clear to blast the ball past a helpless Hart.