Suarez unrepentant over his 2010 handball against Ghana
Luis Suarez stressed he would not be apologising for his handball in Uruguay's 2010 World Cup quarter-final against Ghana as the sides prepare to meet again on Friday.
The clash at the tournament in South Africa 12 years ago saw Suarez sent off in the final moments of extra-time, with the score at 1-1, after keeping out a Dominic Adiyiah header on the line with his hands. The resulting penalty by Asamoah
Gyan hit the bar and Uruguay then won ashootout.
Ahead of the rematch in the final round of Group H matches, Suarez was asked if he had ever thought about apologising to the Ghana team for the incident. The 35-year-old forward said: "I don't apologise about that because I did the handball, but the Ghana player missed the penalty, not me. Maybe I can say an apology if I did a tackle, injured a player, and took a red card. But in this situation, I took a red card, the refsaidpenalty,(and)it'snotmy fault, because I didn't miss the penalty.theplayerwhomissed
thepenalty,hesaidhewoulddo the same in this situation. It's not my responsibility, to shoot the penalty."
Suarez was then asked if he had thought, with Ghana looking for revenge, what the game on Friday could be like for him, and he said: "No, I haven't really thought about this. I don't know what people are saying, whether they are saying this, revenge. But players that will play tomorrow might be eight years old back then. Some peoplemightsay'thedevilhimself', 'he did that'... We can't misunderstand things.
Ghana midfielder Thomas Partey said: "What happened some years ago will be always history that is in our mind, but thisisatotaldifferentgame.we havedifferentplayers,different quality, they have a lot of quality players with a lot of experience, and we just have to work harder and try to get what we want to get."
Ghana have the chance to advanceandenduruguay'slast16 hopes. The African side are currently second in the group with three points, while Diego Alonso's team are bottom with one.already-qualifiedportugal leadthepoolwithsix,andsouth Korea are third with one. The two meet in the group’s other match with the Koreans knowing nothing more than a victory can keep their hopes of progressing alive.