Uruguay great Luis Suarez refused to apologise on Thursday to Ghanaians over his infamous handball at the World Cup 12 years ago – but coach Otto Addo says that his players should be prepared to sacrifice themselves in the same way. The South Americans take on the Africans in a must-win Group H clash in Qatar on Friday, a repeat of the notorious quarter-final in South Africa in 2010.Maybe he’s just a bit biased? Old Black Star labels Kudus the best player in the World CupSuarez deliberately handled the ball on the line at that tournament to prevent a certain goal from Dominic Adiyiah’s header right at the end of extra time. Suarez was shown a red card, but Asamoah Gyan missed the resulting penalty to send Uruguay through and break his compatriots’ hearts.“It’s not my fault, because I didn’t miss the penalty.”Luis Suárez was asked about his handball against Ghana in 2010 😳(via @SkyFootball)pic.twitter.com/3Su7ZNLaaN— B/R Football (@brfootball) December 1, 2022 Striker Suarez became an overnight hero in his homeland, while Ghana missed out on becoming the first-ever African team to reach the World Cup semi-finals. Twelve years later, asked whether he knew that Ghanaians viewed him as the “devil”, Suarez said he had no regrets.”I don’t say I apologise for the handball. Ghana player missed the penalty, not me. Maybe I can say I apologise if I tackle and injure a player and take a red card, maybe I can apologise. But I took a red card in this situation, and the referee said ‘penalty’. It’s not my fault because I did not miss the penalty, the player missed the penalty.”##NAJAVA_MECA_6854018##There has been lots of talk since the World Cup draw was made about Ghana potentially seeking revenge, and many of the African team’s fans have vented their ire at Suarez ahead of the crunch clash. But the Uruguayan insisted the game was in the past and that it made no sense to talk about revenge.”Those that are talking about revenge… were eight at the time, they have only seen it in images. You can’t misinterpret everything. When we played Portugal the players were talking about revenge for being knocked out by Uruguay in 2018, but you can’t live in the past.”🇬🇭Black Stars Coach Otto Addo is not thinking about revenge ahead of Friday’s clash with 🇺🇾Uruguay 🗣 pic.twitter.com/DBFWxdLWkN— George Addo Jnr (@addojunr) November 30, 2022 Ghana coach Otto Addo blatantly called on his players to be ready to sacrifice themselves like Suarez did in South Africa.”If the same incident would have happened the other way around and Ghana would have proceeded to the semi-finals, everyone would have said, ‘OK, it’s normal that a player would do anything he can to help his team to go to the semi-finals. This is what I wish from every player, to do all he can to help his team qualify, sacrificing himself with a red card. For us what happened in 2010 is very sad but we can’t change it. We’re looking forward and we want to win this game.”
