In a match where either Italy or Uruguay would get eliminated from the World Cup, the biggest controversy happened off-the-ball.
At the 79th minute, Uruguay's star striker Luis Suarez and Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini suddenly went to ground in the penalty box. Nobody knew what happened until the replays came on screen.
It seems to be a teething problem:
The Italians protested fiercely against Suarez's actions, while Suarez said he was elbowed in the face. The referee was not impressed by either of them and waved for play to go on.
Chiellini tried to make it clear on pitch that he was bitten by showing off his Uruguayan love bite:
*Edit* FIFA has opened disciplinary proceedings against Luis Suarez over this controversial incident which overshadowed Uruguay's 1-nil victory which sees them going into the top 16. Suarez and the Uruguayan team has until 5 pm Brasilia time on Wednesday (4 am Singapore Time) to "provide their position and any documentary evidence they deem relevant".
FIFA’s disciplinary code sets a maximum ban of 24 matches or two years, but the longest ban in World Cup history was eight games for Italy’s Mauro Tassotti for breaking Spain’s Luis Enrique’s nose in 1994 with an elbow.
Suarez had been involved in two biting incidents previously, namely with PSV's Otto Bakkal:
And Chelsea's Branislav Ivanović:
This sums it up:
And Suarez claims yet another hat-trick! pic.twitter.com/tEvDHHiM9N
— 101 Great Goals (@102greatgoals) June 24, 2014
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