The Costa Rican party goes going as they squeeze past Greece

Joel Campbell somehow lasted 120 minutes with enough energy to take a penalty

Costa Rica and Greece wasn't exactly the quarter-final we hoped for but it gave us some late drama and the Central American nation are still going strong.

Costa Rica booked their place in the quarter-finals of the World Cup as they defeated Greece on penalties in Recife.

After topping Group D, the Central Americans were able to rest some of their players in their final pool match against England and welcomed back Christian Bolanos and Michael Umana, while the Greeks made one alteration, with Andreas Samaris being rewarded for his goal off the bench in the win over the Ivory Coast with a starting place.

With neither nation having ever made it into the last eight of a World Cup, it always looked as if it was going to be an extremely tight affair between two of the surprise packages of the tournament and both sides started slowly, preferring to sit back and absorb any pressure with chances few and far between.

However, it was Costa Rica who had the first real opportunity early on as skipper Bryan Ruiz turned well on the edge of the area, finding Christian Bolanos on the left, but his effort was high and wide over the bar.

Slowly but surely Greece did work their way into the game and after a few speculative efforts from distance, Dimitrios Salpingidis had the best chance of the opening 45 minutes as Jose Holebas found him at the back post and the winger did everything right by playing it back across goal, but Keylor Navas was equal to the task and saved with his leg.

The second half again started slowly but Costa Rica broke the deadlock on 52 minutes when the ball found Ruiz on the edge of the area and the captain coolly passed home into the bottom right corner of Orestis Karnezis' goal.

There was then immediately a controversial moment as Vasilis Torosidis appeared to handle the ball in the area but the referee was unmoved and to add insult to injury, 12 minutes later the Central Americans were reduced to 10 men when Oscar Duarte was given a second yellow for a foul on Holebas.

Greece then made a number of attacking changes, with both Kostas Mitroglou and Theofanis Gekas coming on but they continued to struggle to create chances.

However, the pressure eventually told and in stoppage time Gekas turned well in the box to force a good save from Navas but the goalkeeper was powerless to stop the follow-up effort from Sokratis Papastathopoulos who smashed home to send the game into extra time.

It was understandably the Europeans who dominated against the ten men but the Costa Rican goalkeeper seemed in inspired from, making a string of fine stops as his defenders struggled to keep pace with their men.

Arguably the best of these came from Mitroglou, who after meeting another great ball from the left calmly side footed it towards the goal but just like in the first half against Salpingidis, Navas again spread himself well to save with his trailing leg.

The Ticos themselves had a couple of good breaks, with the fresh legs of Randall Brenes giving them some much needed respite on the counter-attack but they couldn't create any real chances and the match inevitably went to penalties.

With neither side ever having reached the quarter-finals of the World Cup, the pressure was on but you couldn't tell as the first seven were dispatched with aplomb despite the fatigue in the players' legs.

However, it was Greece's Gekas who was the unlucky man, as his well-struck effort was saved by Navas to his right and Michael Umana coolly slotted home to make it 5-3 on penalties and send Jorge Luis Pinto's men through.

Costa Rica will now meet Holland in the last eight on Saturday in what is sure to be another epic encounter in Salvador.