Uruguay's Maxi Pereira receives first red card of World Cup for cynical foul on Joel Campbell

Uruguay's Maxi Pereira fouls Joel Campbell of Costa Rica.

Uruguay didn’t have the best of starts to the 2014 World Cup and their 3-1 loss to Costa Rica was highlighted by Maxi Pereira’s sending off.

In a surprise upset in the Group of Death, Costa Rica managed to top the group in spite of going down 1-0 early on to an Edinson Cavani penalty. Three goals in the second half from Joel Campbell, Ocar Duarte and Marco Urena saw them beat Uruguay and place the Copa America champions at the bottom of the group.

But Maxi Pereira didn’t earn hiself any favours for a cynical foul out of pure frustration in stoppage time.

With just a minute to go in injury time, Pereira hacked down Campbell with a kick, nowehre close to making contact with the ball. As Campbell went to the ground in obviou agony, the referee pulled out his red card and gave the Uruguay defender his marching orders.

The red card was the 160th in World Cup history and Uruguay’s ninth in the competition. They are only behind fellow South American giants Brazil (11) and Argentina (10).

The last Uruguay player to be sent off in a World Cup was Luis Suarez for the deliberate handball in 2010 against Ghana.