It was the Central Americans who managed to get away the first shot of the night, with Bryan Ruiz sliding a pass out to Christian Bolanos whose effort from a tight angle flew over the bar on eight minutes.
Shortly after, Lazaros Christodoulopoulos beat two men as he cut inside from the left flank, before dragging his long-range attempt wide of the target.
Greece started to enjoy more of the ball as the half progressed, and Giorgos Karagounis came close to opening the scoring when he struck the ball from 25-yards out which Keylor Navas did well to handle just short of the half-hour mark.
Navas was called into action once more before the interval, this time to deny Dimitris Salpingidis's first-time finish at the back post with a superb stop to ensure that the scores remained level at the break.
The breakthrough came seven minutes after the restart when Ruiz steered a low pass into the bottom corner of the net with Orestis Karnezis left rooted to the spot, to give La Sele a 1-0 lead with their first real attack of the second half.
With over 20 minutes still left to play, Costa Rica defender Oscar Duarte was shown a second yellow card of the night to give Greece real hope of staging a comeback.
Following a couple of half-chances, the Ethniki turned the screw further as Lazaros pounced on a loose cross which he could only send wide.
Some fine play on the left by Lazaros created an opening for substitute Kostas Mitroglou, but the striker was unable to convert the chance.
Then, as the game entered injury time, centre-back Sokratis Papastathopoulos levelled the contest as he tapped home after Theofanis Gekas's shot on the turn was pushed into his path by Navas.
Greece could have won it with seconds remaining, but Navas pulled off another superb save to deny Mitroglou to send the game into extra time.
Despite the numerical disadvantage, it was Costa Rica who came closest to breaking the deadlock during extra time as second-half substitute Randall Brenes volleyed narrowly wide of the mark minutes after the restart.
The Greeks could have then nicked it at the death but Navas, just as he did at the end of normal time, denied Mitroglou and it soon transpired that penalties were needed to separate both teams.
Seven perfectly executed penalties from both sides saw Costa Rica hold a slender 4-3 lead, but Navas's save from Gekas handed Michael Umana the opportunity to win it once and for all - and the 31-year-old duly obliged, stroking home the winning penalty to seal their progression and book a last-eight clash with the Netherlands.
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