Credit: FUTV In Vivo

A marauding opossum forced a football match to be temporarily stopped after invading the pitch and giving players a run for their money in Costa Rica on Wednesday evening.

With the game between Primera Division sides Guanacasteca and Puntarenas evenly poised at 1-1 in the 85th minute, players and fans were left cheering on an unlikely substitute when the animal made its way on to the pitch and, with a mazy run, evaded players attempting to usher it off.

However, after a persistent chase by a Guanacasteca player, the opossum finally waltzed off the pitch and evaded capture by slipping through a fence.

The pause in play benefited the home team as the Nicoya-based side came away with three points thanks to a winner in the 89th minute.

It is not the first time an opossum has thrown its weight around at a sporting event. Another culprit stole the headlines by interrupting a college American football game in Texas last year and required an escort to leave the field.

Opossums are native to North and South America and are not to be confused with possums, which are primarily based in Australia and New Zealand.

They have more teeth, 50, than any other North American land mammal and, luckily for Guanacasteca and Puntarenas players, their diet is restricted mainly to ticks, cockroaches, crickets, beetles and rodents.

Animals invading sports pitches has become the norm. In May, a racoon evaded a two-man capture crew with a bin during an MLS game in Philadelphia.

And an alpaca stopped play during a non-League match between Carlton Athletic and Ilkley Town in 2020.

Famously, a dog stopped play in Bolivia that same year after running around the pitch with a football boot in its mouth.