…Waits to meet winner between Nigeria and South Korea.
The Junior Azurris of Italy on Saturday at San Juan in Argentina glided over Columbia 3-2 to move to her 4th successive semifinal of the world U20 championships.
Cesare Casedei scored the first goal at 9th minute from super assist fellow, Tomasso Baldanzi to make a goal haul of 5 together with Marcos Leonardo of Brazil. Casedei scored one against England; two against Dominic Republic and another two against Brazil. Baldanzi in collaboration with Casedei scored the 2nd goal in the 38th minute Columbia suddenly woke to seek for goals and Torres Guaza collected a pass from Daniel Luna to get their only goal in the 49th minute.
italyAyodele’s prophecy fulfilled as deadly flood hits Italy, Afghanistan, Others
Two players are on the second line of highest goal scorer with 4 goals each are Oscar Cortes of Columbia who was pocketed by Italy in this game and also on 4 goals is Justin Cuero of Ecuador.
Nigeria will again meet Italy in the semifinal if the country can overcome South Korea tomorrow in the round of 16 at 1830 hours (not 2200 hours). Nigeria had beaten Italy 2-0 in their group game.
Columbia almost made 100% winning 2-1 over Israel that is into the Quarterfinals now; snapping Japan 2-1 and then played 1-1 draw with the African Champions, Senegal. Columbia played a barren draw with Sweden on 26th of March 2023 and forced Nigeria to 3-3 draw on home soil on 16th of May. Columbia slaughtered Slovakia 5-0 in the round of 16.
Italy stepped out first to beat Brazil 3-2 to send warning signals out; but lost to Nigeria 0-2 in the second match before thrashing Dominic Republic 3-0 and in the round of 16, Italy caged the Junior Three Lions of England 2-1.
The Coffee Growers of Columbia are appearing in the World U20 tournament for the 11th time appearing in the quarters four times in 1985; 1989; 2011 and 2019. Their best performance was in 2003 when the team won the Bronze beating Argentina 3-1 on 19th December 2003. The team had lost in the semifinal to Spain on 15th December by a lone goal via a penalty scored by Iniesta in the 86th minute. Columbia’s greatest win was 7-0 over Netherlands on 16th July 2006 but her biggest loss was 0-6 to Brazil on 1st September 1985 in the Soviet Union games.
The Gli Azzurrini of Italy coached by Camine Nunziata is in the competition for the 8th time and won bronze only once as best result at South Korea in 2017 after playing goalless at Extra time won on 4-1 penalty kicks, The Ref was Cesar Ramos from Mexico. Italy had lost the semifinal to England 1-3. Nigerian Born Solanke scored a Brace for England in 66th and 88th minute and Lookman also scored 77th minute for England. Italy won Bronze before 10,749 fans.
Italy was 4th placed at Poland 2019 when she lost to Ecuador 0-1 AET on 14th June before 8,934 fans. The team had lost the semifinal to South Korea 0-1 in Poland. Other placing were quarterfinals in 1987 in Chile; at Netherlands in 2005 and in Egypt in 2009.
Tomorrow at 2200 hours USA will square up with Uruguay after Nigeria would have faced Korea at 1830 hours.
Eniola Olatunji reporting for Patmos Media Line.
The Author, Eniola Olatunji (formerly Yomi Kassim) has been in the media for some 46 years with vast experience in Radio Sports Commentaries and Newspaper reporting. He worked as Presenter/Producer on many radio stations and Reporter/Editor in some Newspapers,
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