Costa Rica coach Jorge Luis Pinto hailed their character after a dramatic penalty shootout win over World Cup opponents Greece.
Costa Rica went ahead early in the second half through captain Bryan Ruiz's first-time strike.
That looked to be enough for Costa Rica, only for Greece defender Sokratis Papastathopoulos to net a stoppage-time leveller to take the round of 16 encounter into extra-time.
The match eventually went to penalties and, after man-of-the-match Keylor Navas saved Theofanis Gekas' attempt, Michael Umana struck home to send the Central Americans into the last eight.
"I am very happy," coach Pinto said after the 5-3 penalty shootout win.
"This is an incredible emotion that we all feel, this is an important win for the team and for the whole country. We are really proud.
"We are making history. It's beautiful what we have done. This win is for everyone in Costa Rica.
"We practiced penalties before and we had studied the opposition and that's why we scored 100 per cent.
"It was a dramatic match, a very difficult one. There were moments when we dominated the match but there were other moments when they did but we were strong and we came through."
