Sharjah: Argentina coach Humberto Grondona praised his side’s ability to edge the Ivory Coast out of the game, following their 2-1 win in the quarter-finals of the Fifa Under 17 World Cup here on Saturday.
First-half goals from Argentina’s Joaquin Ibanez and Rodrigo Moreira seemingly put the game beyond doubt, before the Ivory Coast’s Franck Kessie struck a late penalty consolation. But Argentina managed to hold on despite a late scramble, to book their berth in the semi-finals against Mexico this forthcoming Tuesday.
Grondona said: “We had an excellent first half but we knew the Ivory Coast would want to score in the second half, so we had to fight and struggle. We won this match against a strong African champion and had to do a lot of work to achieve this result. In the end we deserved this victory and I’m very proud of my boys and it’s a great honour for me to be in front of this group.
“Our biggest advantage was our own fixed tactics. We knew about the Ivory Coast very well, we both have a very good defence so we knew how to handle them. We tried to keep possession of the ball and it was very competitive, we also knew they would take shots from outside the area as soon as you give them the ball, so we were prepared very well and in the end it worked.
“It was a great victory against a great African champion but we still feel there is something missing so we stay on this path. We had to play against some very tough rivals to get this far but the strongest among them was the Ivory Coast.”
Ivory Coast coach Ebrahima Kamara said: “The experience of my boys was not enough to deal with all the emotions at the beginning of this game. We made some adjustments at half time but it wasn’t enough. We are here to learn and I’m sure this experience will serve us well for the future.
“We are not disappointed. A year ago these boys were playing with small local clubs in Abidjan and now they have just come close to making a World Cup semi-final, which is a great accomplishment. Now we have to take examples from this competition and hope that one day we can have regularity at this level.
“We have to be ready for the next World Cup and we have to be better with our emotions to be more used to the competition with the view to doing better at the next World Cup.”