Abu Dhabi: In less than five minutes, Argentina’s dream of featuring in their first ever Fifa Under-17 World Cup final turned into a nightmare.
They missed a penalty in the first 90 seconds of their semi-final against Mexico in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday and were punished three minutes later by conceding the first goal of what turned into a 3-0 defeat.
Argentina have now failed at the last-four stage five times — following on from the 1991, 1995, 2001 and 2003 editions — in the only major international tournament they have yet to win.
Humberto Grondona, their head coach, said afterwards: “It was a tough match. We made some mistakes early in the game, including squandering a penalty, and that made the difference between the two teams. If we had scored from the penalty, it would has been a different story.
“Despite the sad loss, I believe my players did well, especially in the second half with 10 men. We created some scoring chances but we did not score. Mexico took advantage of our attacking style in the first half, so we changed our plan in the second. It was just a bad night for us.”
Asked if he thought Mexico were good enough to win the title for a second successive time, Grondona said: “I congratulate them for the good match they played and wish them good luck, but it is hard to say if they are good enough to win the World Cup.”
Regarding how he is going to motivate his players to play in the third place match, Grondona replied: “ We, players and members of the technical staff, want to end on the podium and that, I believe, is enough motivation.”
Mexico have now knocked out both Argentina and Brazil as they bid to defend the title they won on home soil in 2011.
In Friday’s final, El Tri will get the chance to gain revenge over Nigeria, who thrashed them 6-1 in their opening group match in Al Ain last month.
“I am happy and overjoyed for the players,” Mexico head coach Raul Gutierrez said after the win over Argentina. “They [Mexico’s players] did well to win the match tonight, although they did not yet show their best.
“Without a doubt, the final will be tough and difficult. When we arrived in the UAE, our objective was to reach the final match and we have already achieved that objective.
“The fact that three of the teams that played the preliminary round in our group — namely Mexico, Nigeria and Sweden — reached the semi-finals, shows how difficult the competition has been in that group and how tough the road to this stage has been.”
Asked about why his team retreated when leading 2-0 on Tuesday, Gutierrez said: “We played according to the situation. We were leading with two goals and playing against a reduced team, so we tried to defend our lead and depend upon counter-attacks. It worked marvellously for us.”
