The 23-year-old Ajax striker blasted home a superb 80th-minute winner to break South Korea's hearts after seeing his opener cancelled out by Lee Chung-yong.

That was the first goal Uruguay had conceded in the finals and came after a total of 338 minutes of football in South Africa, but it was not enough to derail one of the surprise packages to date.

Asked if Uruguay could go all the way, Suarez said: "We have been dreaming since this tournament started.

"The World Cup is the World Cup, we are all facing each other on an equal footing.

"Some teams start out as favourites, but my team is ready to fight hard."

Suarez, who opened his finals account with the winner against Mexico in the group stage, doubled his tally with just eight minutes gone when he converted expertly from Diego Forlan's teasing cross.

However, South Korea striker Park Chu-young had earlier hit the post with a free-kick and the Asian side staged a major fightback after the break to level through Lee with 68 minutes gone.

But Suarez was to have the final say, curling home a superb winner off the post with just 10 minutes left to play.

He said: "It was the most important goal of my footballing career."

Korea coach Huh Jung-moo, who revealed afterwards he is yet to decide on his own future, admitted his team has been made to pay for not taking their chances.

He said: "We wanted to go to the quarter-finals and our players did their best, and I am very grateful for their efforts.

"Uruguay were very strong individually, but the ultimate reason we lost is because we weren't able to take our chances."