Hassan Ammar / AP
Italy’s Giorgio Chiellini displays his shoulder showing apparent teeth marks after colliding with the mouth of Uruguay’s Luis Suarez during the group D World Cup soccer match between Italy and Uruguay at the Arena das Dunas in Natal, Brazil, Tuesday, June 24, 2014.
Tuesday, June 24, 2014 | 12:51 p.m.
Highlighting a power shift away from Europe, Uruguay fought — and apparently even bit — its way to a 1-0 victory over Italy Tuesday to move to the World Cup's next round with Costa Rica, which sent England home without a single victory after a goalless draw.
Uruguay was the much more aggressive team, as Italy could advance with a draw and played defensively. Around 80 minutes in, Luis Suarez and Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini crashed together and both fell. Replays showed Suarez seem to bite Chiellini's shoulder.
The referee didn't see the bite and no foul was called. About a minute later, the decisive goal was scored on a powerful header from Diego Godin. Italy was down to 10 men since the 59th minute, when Claudio Marchisio received a red card for putting his boot into Egidio Arevalo's knee.
It was the second straight time that Italy, a four-time champion, went out in the first round.
"When you're coming off two defeats without even scoring a goal, we clearly also have to take our share of that blame," said goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, who played on his fifth World Cup squad.
After the game, Italy coach Cesare Prandelli announced his resignation. Also Tuesday, Safet Susic, who guided Bosnia-Herzegovina to its first World Cup, hinted he will resign as coach after the squad's group-stage exit.
The draw against England gave Costa Rica, the surprise team of the competition, first place in Group D over three former champions, and gutted more of the European contingent at the tournament.
The Central Americans already reached the second round in 1990. But this time they did it as group winner, beating top rate opposition.
And after an opening loss to Costa Rica, Uruguay recovered with two victories to keep its tournament alive, four years after a surprising run to the semifinals.
After beating England with two great goals to start the comeback, Suarez turned into the villain on Tuesday. The mercurial forward had already been banned twice for biting over the past four years, once in the Netherlands and once in England. FIFA can sanction players for biting with bans of up to two years.
Uruguay will play the winner of Group C, with Costa Rica taking on the runner-up. In the group, already qualified Colombia takes on Japan, while Ivory Coast play Greece in simultaneous matches later Tuesday.
With Greece already last in the group and with only an outside chance to qualify, it could even make Europe's World Cup in Brazil even worse.
Life was already bad enough for England, which lost two games coming into Tuesday's game. The English created several chances, but the end result was another bitter setback.
"We are so disappointed not to finish with a victory, but I don't think I have asked for a much better performance," said coach Roy Hodgson.
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