10 Most Shocking World Cup Moments Ever
8. The Bite
Luis Suarez is one of the most controversial figures in football. Supremely talented, Suarez is a highly consistent goalscorer at both club and international level, but has courted controversy time and time again. At the 2010 World Cup, he shocked the world with a deliberate handball to prevent Ghana from scoring a last-minute winner, but he wasn’t done there! In 2014, he caused an even greater scandal.
It was the final group stage game and Uruguay needed a win against Italy to get through to the next round. The game was 0-0 and heading for a bore draw when, in the 79th minute, Suarez clashed with Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini. The Uruguayan fell to the floor, seemingly clutching his face in pain, but replays showed that he’d actually bitten the Italian’s shoulder and should have been sent off.
Suarez had been seen digging his teeth into players on two previous occasions, so perhaps it shouldn’t have come as such a surprise to see him do it again on the grandest stage of all, but the incident proved to be hugely controversial as Uruguay subsequently won a corner and scored the winning goal to send Italy out of the competition.