A terrible match between Uruguay and Italy for the right to qualify from Group D went down with plenty of controversy. Mexican referee wrongly sent off Claudio Marchisio and ruined the match, Luis Suarez struck again with his teeth, biting Georgio Chiellini. The bottom line? Italy lose 1-0 and are knocked out of the World Cup, while Uruguay move on thanks to a Diego Godin goal.

Not a lot of chances, not a lot of great football. Italy needed a draw and played like it for most of the match. Maybe a bit more assertiveness in the first half against a weak Uruguayan team would have made a difference. Maybe then a huge mistake by the referee wouldn’t have mattered.

In the 59th minute, Claudio Marchisio was sent off for sending his leg slightly forward towards a Uruguayan player. He did it right in front of the referee. He didn’t hurt the player, and wasn’t doing it with an intent to foul. Rodriguez didn’t see it that way and sent off Marchisio, sending Italy to park the bus and waste time.

Uruguay didn’t play well, but eventually got their goal through Diego Godin, hitting the ball with his back and not his head to give Uruguay a hugely important goal. In the meantime, Luis Suarez, the hero of the previous match, has an awful match and once again made himself into a target by biting Georgio Chiellini, who shouted for the referee to look at his torn shirt and the bite marks. Suarez got away with it.

Italy didn’t deserve to win. They played terrible against Costa Rica, they looked anemic for most of the match against Uruguay. For the second straight time they don’t make it out of the group stage, only this time everything looked to go so well for them early on against England, slightly falling apart as the tournament went on.