I didn’t miss the penalty – Luis Suarez not sorry for 2010 handball versus 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 was struck against the bar by Asamoah Gyan, and Uruguay then won the subsequent shoot-out.

Ahead of the rematch at the Qatar edition in the final round of Group H matches, Suarez was asked at a press conference 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 ref said penalty, (and) it’s not my fault, because I didn’t miss the penalty.

“The player who missed the penalty, he said he would do 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 people might say ‘the devil himself’, ‘he did that’… We can’t misunderstand things.

“We won against Portugal in 2018 (in the World Cup last 16) – have we heard Portuguese people saying ‘we need revenge’? No.

“What I did with (Italy’s Giorgio) Chiellini