Commentators love to mention Uruguay’s small population during matches, as it helps underscore just how impressive the nation’s consistent success is in world soccer. But when you watch La Celeste defend like it did against Portugal on Saturday, that factoid actually raises an important question: Was Uruguay allowed to field 3.4 million people at once? It certainly felt like that as Portugal struggled to find its way through rows and rows of blue-shirted players. A lone Portuguese success came off of a corner kick, but Uruguay still won, 2–1.

Uruguay plays like a stonefish, hunkering down in the seafloor until it’s time to pounce. The team’s ruthlessly talented attacking duo of Edinson Cavani and Luis Suárez can subsist on chances they make for themselves, like the one they created in the seventh minute to score the game’s first goal. Cavani sprayed a cross-field pass to Suárez, who returned the favor by whipping in a cross to his onrushing partner.

It was like a basketball give-and-go, executed in 50-yard advancements.

Cavani’s second goal was the result of an even more direct counter-attack, one that started after a misplayed goal kick landed at the feet of Nahitan Nández. Suárez dummied the midfielder’s pass, and that gave Cavani enough of a window to curl his one-touch shot past the outstretched keeper.

The strikers’ metabolisms are engineered to feed off scraps, and Uruguay’s goals represented two-thirds of the team’s total on-target shot attempts against Portugal.

Not everything went according to plan for Uruguay, however. Cavani injured his leg in the 72nd minute and limped off (with the help of famous good sport Cristiano Ronaldo).

Uruguay held on to secure a quarterfinal date with France, a terrifying team whose squad is packed to the gills with talent and speed. Cavani won’t affect how La Celeste defends, but his absence would surely be felt in those crucial and sudden moments of attack should he prove unable to play. Until then, Uruguay will just have to bide its time, a scenario in which it is more than comfortable.