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Uruguay qualify for the second round with win over improved Saudi Arabia

Roar Guru
20th June, 2018
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Uruguay's Luis Suarez celebrates after scoring against Bolivia.(MIGUEL ROJO/AFP/Getty Images)
Roar Guru
20th June, 2018
0

Uruguay have held off Saudi Arabia to win their second game of the FIFA World Cup and guarantee their progress to the next round.

Click here to re-live The Roar’s live blog.

The result also ensures that the host nation Russia will qualify from Group A alongside the South Americans.

It was a much improved performance from the Saudis after their horror start to the tournament.

They showed plenty of attacking intent and in fact had more possession overall than the star-studded Uruguayans

However, a poor piece of defending in the 23rd minute – young keeper Alowais coming for and failing to collect a corner – allowed Luis Suarez to score from inside the six-yard box, and that meant the Saudis were always playing from behind.

Ultimately, they were never able to score that elusive goal to get them something out of this game, and give them some sort of faint chance of making the second round.

While the Desert Eagles never dropped their bundle and fought on in a determined fashion, they were always lacking that cutting edge in the final third, and despite having a lot of the ball had few particularly good chances.

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Nevertheless, they can feel that a certain amount of pride has been restored in keeping a team like Uruguay to just the one goal when most of the world was expecting another thumping.

The central defensive pairing of Ali al-Buhlali and Osama Hawsawi had much improved games, while Alowais recovered well after the early error.

Yasser al-Shahrani looked threatening at times up front on the left, while Hattan Behrebi was a focal point in the Saudi attack before being subbed off in the 75th minute.

Caceres at left full back was possibly La Celeste’s most enterprising player.

Laxalt provided a bit of extra pace and danger after coming off the bench Uruguay manager Tavarez Oscar will be happy that Suarez got on the scoresheet, but probably a bit concerned that his midfield conceded 53 per cent of possession to the Saudis, who are not noted for their ball control at this level.

For the most part, the game was a fairly tepid affair, played at a low tempo in humid conditions.

Uruguay will certainly be happy to progress through to the second round. But I doubt they’ll feel too encouraged by the quality of their performances. They did have a number of good chances this evening, but ultimately they could only score from a bad error.

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They’re likely to meet either Spain or Portugal in the second round. I can’t see either of those teams being so generous.

Uruguay will now need to beat Russia to top Group A as they are substantially behind the hosts on goal difference.

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