A gleeful Uruguayan media focused its attention on two-goal Luis Suarez, praising him for overcoming both criticism and injury to lead his country to a 2-1 World Cup win over England on Thursday.
- Macintosh: Just no defence for England
- Miguel: Suarez, Cavani work their magic
- Mitten: Uruguay attack sinks England
- Jolly: Defensive shambles hurts England
- Hoddle: England made a 'schoolboy error'
"Suarez does not bite them, he swallows them," Ovacion headlined, referring to the Liverpool forward's infamous bite on Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic. The paper said his match-winning performance was revenge for the criticism the 27-year-old had endured in England.
"As all Uruguayans dreamed, Luis Suarez returned just in time against England, and was the hero," it said. "The Pistolero got revenge for so much criticism received from the English by leaving them on the brink of elimination. It is true that England was the country which sheltered him and brought him to be one of the best forwards in the world (and why not the best?), but it was also the place which has systematically mistreated him."
El Observador also hailed the striker, recalling that only four weeks ago he had been in tears when a knee injury appeared likely to wreck his World Cup hopes.
"Suarez was the hero, against the opponent he most wanted to beat," the paper said. "That is because he scored the first when the team was soaring, and above all for giving victory when everything seemed lost.
The construction of that goal began 28 days ago, when Luis emerged from the Medica Uruguaya (hospital) with a distraught face and sitting in a wheelchair, when the tears flowed after he was told an operation was needed. But he got up, he walked, he ran and he scored two golazos -- like in a fairytale."
Across the River Plate estuary in Buenos Aires, the Argentine media was also enjoying the moment. Ole's match report was headlined "The Incredible Suarez" and said a shocked England were still not sure how they had suffered a second consecutive World Cup defeat.
"England, another to have been hit with a frying pan at this World Cup, are saying goodbye," it added. "They once invented football, but here they were bewildered again. Suarez, and Uruguay, whacked them."
SUN SPORT: It had to be chew! #tomorrowspaperstoday #bbcpapers pic.twitter.com/cpMtF9Pisk
- Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) June 19, 2014Meanwhile, a downbeat English media knew that, barring a "miracle," the World Cup is over for Roy Hodgson's side -- and there were plenty more bite puns on both front and back pages.
"It had to be chew!" headlined the Sun, which also reported that England boss Roy Hodgson has no intention of resigning from his post.
But the paper's chief sports writer Steven Howard laid into England, damning their performance under the headline "Same old England: Defensive blunders, poor final balls, even worse finishing."
"All bite on the night," said the Guardian's front page headline, while the Daily Mail said Suarez was "just two good" and Martin Samuel joined the chorus of condemnation of the performance. "Ultimately, England cannot handle the heat," Samuel wrote. "Not the searing temperatures of an Amazonian rainforest, or the muggy humidity of a South American World Cup. They cannot handle the heat that comes with international football."
Daily Mirror columnist Oliver Holt said England were "at their frustrating worst."
"The free spirits who took the match to Italy in Manaus had flown away," he added. "In their place, an England team as dull and gloomy as the tower blocks in this concrete jungle called Sao Paulo stumbled their way to desperate defeat in the Arena Corinthians."