These dramatic images show three Costa Rica football fans lying in pools of blood after being stabbed while watching their team crash out of the World Cup.
The side’s heroic performances at the tournament were marred by scenes of ugly violence in the nation’s capital of San Jose as thousands gathered under a giant TV screen to watch their team take on Holland in the quarter-final.
One man can be seen lying on the floor with a knife still embedded in his back as police created a human cordon to hold back the crowds.
The men were stabbed in the city’s Democracy Square after Costa Rica’s World Cup came to a nail-biting finale – when they eventually succumbed to Holland on penalties after the game was locked 0-0 following extra time.
Costa Rican police are yet to make an official statement on the violence which has tarnished a country who have been supported so valiantly since they progressed from a World Cup group they shared with England. Thirty-one rowdy fans were arrested in Costa Rica during street celebrations that erupted after the country won its first-ever trip to the World Cup quarter-finals, police said Monday. Most of the arrests were for brawls or public disorder, police said in a statement on their 20-hour operation around the team’s match against Greece on Sunday, which Costa Rica won on penalty kicks after a nail-biting 1-1 draw, despite playing one man down.
Police also seized two guns, a knife and drugs, they said. Traffic police for their part stopped 27 people for drunk driving.
In all, police said they had received 486 reports of domestic violence, 602 of public disorder and 411 of assaults or street fights.
The Central American country partied long into the night after their team’s victory in the northeast Brazilian city of Recife.
Police urged Costa Ricans to behave responsibly when the team plays the Netherlands in the quarter-finals Saturday.
