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An 80th-minute equaliser from Maximiliano Araujo helped Uruguay play a 1-1 draw against Saudi Arabia in their FIFA World Cup opening clash at Miami on Tuesday.
With this draw, Spain, Cape Verde, Uruguay and Saudi Arabia, all the teams in the group H are all level at one point each. In the starting minutes of the match, it was Uruguay who dominated with the ball and an effort from Araujo after being fed by Matias Vina was pushed wide in the fifth minute. Saudi Arabia displayed some attack, which was quickly put out by Uruguay. The match stayed quite uneventful, untill the 30th minute when a ball from Araujo fell to Federico Vinas, who tried to head it into the net but found the safe hands of Saudi goalie Mohamed Al-Owais. In the 38th minute, Fernando Muslera pushed an attempt from Abdulelah Al-Amri, but three minutes later, he could not prevent a close-range strike by Amri from finding the back of the net. Saudi Arabia led at the time of the half-time. During the second half, Uruguay started getting more aggressive, with Vinas producing a couple of chances and Real Madrid star Federico Valverde also running into their defences. Manuel Ugarte and Valverde also got their chances, but Al Owais' goalkeeping was really good. In the 80th minute, came the equaliser from Uruguay as another header from Vinas was kept away from the net by Al Owais, but the ball fell back to Araujo, who fired it back into the net, giving Uruguay the fruits of their relentless attack and improvement in the second half. The scoreline continued undisturbed towards the end. Uruguay enjoyed a ball possession of over 66 per cent, with 27 shots as compared to Saudi Arabia's 10, and 10 shots on target as compared to just three from Saudi. (ANI)
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