…Flying Eagles to Try an Encore Victory over Argentina at 8:30pm Tonight.
Hosts La Rojita (Little Red Ones –same nickname with Spain) of Chile were on in the wee hours of Wednesday morning sent to the stands to watch the rest of the tournament with a scolding of 4-1 by the El Tri of Mexico in the Round of 16 games of the world U20 football tournament.
It would have been an avalanche of goals to embarrass the Chileans but for the God of Soccer who showed them mercy even in lashing defeat. Tahiel Jimenez opened scoring in the 26th minute but a resilient defence of Chile’s knees crumbled in the 2nd half when Midfielder Iker Fimbres sliced through the defence as hot knife slices through butter with a Elias Montiel assist in the 67th minute
The bench supplied Amaury Morales who came in 78th minute to supply two devastating assists, first to Hugo Camberos who got the 3rd goal in the 80th minute and then Camberos getting a brace from him in the 86th minute. Juan Rossel got a consolatory goal for Chile in the 88th minute through a pass from Lautaro Millan.
Mexico showed Chile they may be on the field together but are not mates on football intelligence as the Americans dominated the game with 62-38% ball possession; stringed 432-256 passes and showed desperado in 11-9 foul calls that saw them earning 4-1 yellow cards.
Chile Litle Red Ones were deficient of clinical finishes as the team had 17-19 shots at goal; 6-5 of which were on target and 9-7 corner kick advantage
The Chileans were in their 7th appearances that only gave them a Bronze medal at Canada 2007 when they beat Austria by a lone goal but they hosted in 1987 and placed 4th losing to then East Germany 3-1 on penalties after 1-1 at full time.
Mexico who are in their 16th appearances lost the maiden edition in Tunisia 1977 to then Soviet Union 8-9 on penalties after 2-2 draw at full time; Got a Bronze in 2011 and had hosted in 1983 without good result.
Mexico will now meet the winner of the Argentina versus Nigeria match in the quarterfinals at 9pm on Saturday in Chile’s most populated city of Santiago.
Tuesday night, Spain dismissed war torn Ukraine by a lone goal to set up a quarterfinal match against winner of Colombia versus South Africa in Talca on Saturday at 9pm.
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Today at 8:30 pm Colombia will trade tackles with South Africa at Talca same time Nigeria will tray an encore victory over Argentina they defeated in 2023 at Santiago. Both teams are already in that city and the Flying Eagles trained on the pitch Monday evening.
Later at midnight today Wednesday, Japan will try their computerized strategy against France while at the same time Paraguay will try a NO WAY act against Norway. Tomorrow Thursday at 8:30 pm USA will battle Italy and same Thursday at midnight; Africa’s Morocco will file out against South Korea of Asia.
The 3rd quarterfinals to be played at 9pm of 12th October at Rancagua will be winner of the USA vs Italy match and winner of the Morocco vs South Korea match while the 4th quarterfinal will feature winner of the Paraguay vs Norway and winner of the Japan vs France at Valparaiso at midnight.
Eniola Olatunji reporting for Patmos Media Line.
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#RSFF #UAF #CFA #IFA.
