FIFA World Cup 2022: Why Uruguay and Ghana fell short in Group H

Bengaluru, December 5: The knockout stages of the FIFA World Cup 2022 has started following a thrilling group stage. We witnessed plenty of drama in almost every group as plenty of upsets took place.

Not a single team managed to advance to the round of 16 having won all three group stage games which is a testament of the quality of football we got to experience.

The Group H was a heavily contested group despite the fact that Portugal ensured their qualification right after two games.

However, all three other teams had their hopes of advancing alive in the final game and it was South Korea who made the impossible possible by beating Portugal.

A dramatic 2-1 comeback win against Portugal saw South Korea advancing to the round of 16 ahead of Uruguay who collected same number of points (four) and had the same goal difference as well (zero). However, the Asian giants qualified as they scored two more goals than the South Americans.

Ghana, meanwhile, also fared pretty well for a team that came to the World Cup as the lowest ranked nation as they collected three points by beating South Korea. They could not take their much-awaited revenge on Uruguay in the final round of games which would have secured their own qualification.

Here, we will take a look at why Uruguay and Ghana fell short in Group H:

Uruguay: Uruguay came to the World Cup with one of the strongest attacking departments but to be fair, they looked quite toothless while going forward.

The veteran duo of Luis Suarez and Edinson Cavani are clearly past their best while Darwin Nunez had a World Cup campaign to forget.

Also, Diego Alonso's defensive tactics came to cost them dearly as Uruguay struggled to create too many chances against South Korea and Portugal.

Ghana: Ghana did pretty well in the World Cup, especially while going forward. Mohammed Kudus, in particular, had a wonderful campaign along with the Ayew brothers.

What cost Ghana was their lack of quality in midfield as they never really managed to control a single game. Ghana scored more goals than both South Korea and Uruguay but still finished last in their group and could have done a lot better at the back.