Uruguay book place at 2014 World Cup finals

Friday, 22 November 2013 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

REUTERS: Uruguay sealed their spot at the 2014 World Cup finals after a goalless draw at home to Jordan in the second leg of their intercontinental playoff on Wednesday saw them advance 5-0 on aggregate. Uruguay, the last of the 32 teams to book their place at the finals in Brazil, had all but secured their berth with a crushing 5-0 victory in the first leg in Amman last week.

“We’re all happy because the truth is it’s been a hard road,” striker Edinson Cavani told reporters after Uruguay’s 18th match of the qualifying campaign. “We have to enjoy it.” Left back Martin Caceres suggested that winning the first leg by such a big margin had made it harder to concentrate in the second. “After winning 5-0 it was going to get complicated, we knew we had to take the match seriously,” he added. “We’d have liked to give the crowd a triumph and at least one goal to shout about but it wasn’t to be, that’s football.” Despite needing to score at least five to have any hope of overturning the deficit, Jordan defended deep and in numbers on Wednesday, denying the South Americans scoring chances and making sure there would be no repeat of the 5-0 mauling. The closest the home side came to scoring was when centre back Diego Godin headed against the bar just before halftime, but the lack of goals failed to dampen celebrations on the pitch or among the crowd of 60,000 in the stands. “(Jordan) got what they wanted, a dignified role and a result that I suppose for them is very important,” coach Oscar Tabarez told the post-match news conference. “We must accept that the main reason why we couldn’t win was our rivals’ good tactics.”