Great Britain's men's football team are out of the Olympics after they were beaten 5-4 on penalties by South Korea after their quarter-final ended 1-1 in normal time in Cardiff.
Chelsea striker Daniel Sturridge missed the vital last kick, allowing Celtic's Ki Sung-Yueng to send South Korea into a last-four meeting with Brazil at Old Trafford on Tuesday.
Aaron Ramsey successfully converted a penalty in the 36th minute to cancel out Ji Dong-Won's opener on 29 minutes. However, he missed from the spot when he had the chance to put Britain in front in normal time.
That Ramsey should score in the shoot-out, having already converted one prior to his failure, just heightened the frustration for a capacity crowd, who had seen Ji put South Korea in front.
Much like their female counterparts 24 hours earlier, GB had been quickly forced onto the back foot by quick, dangerous opponents. Jack Butland made an excellent save to deny Ji, then Park Jong-Woo fired over from the edge of the area before Arsenal's Park Chu-Young got above Joe Allen without being able to keep his powerful far-post header down.
Colombian referee Wilmar Roldan awarded the hosts two penalties in the space of four minutes which should have turned the match on its head.
The first was for an obvious handball by Oh Jae-Suk as he slid in to block Ryan Bertrand's shot, earned a booking and triggered a shoving match between the sides as Kim Young-Kwon scuffed up the penalty spot.
The second was awarded after Sturridge went down after contact with from Hwang Seokho. On the first occasion, Ramsey's shot crept under Jung Sung-Ryong's body. Second time, the midfielder was not so lucky. He went for the opposite corner, Sung-Ryong read it, and palmed it away.
As the crowd started to get impatient, demanding the introduction of Ryan Giggs to what had started as an unchanged line-up, Ji was unable to turn home a far post corner. Giggs was finally introduced with six minutes remaining but could prevent the outcome requiring an additional 30 to be determined.
It had to come down to penalties. Jessica Ennis, Greg Rutherford and Mo Farah had shown the way. Unfortunately, the footballers could not follow.
Source: PA
