Argentina’s soccer team should close the game earlier so as not to suffer as it did in the closing of its 2-1 World Cup victory over Australia, coach Lionel Scaloni said on Saturday.
Argentina led 2-0 with goals from Lionel Messi and Julian Alvarez, but Australia scored near the end with a shot that went outside but deflected into Enzo Fernandez.
“We are satisfied, today’s game was very difficult, they make a suffocating pressure, it cost us in the first half but opened the can Leo (…) In the second half we corrected some things and the team did not deserve to suffer in those last minutes,” Scaloni said.
“We had situations to not end this way, maybe a 2-0 was not bad (…) Today we found a very difficult opponent, the difficulty is maximum and it is good that everyone sees it, “he added.
The coach acknowledged that the team had a physical decline near the close after playing four games in 11 days. “In the end we were physically fair,” he said.
On Friday, Argentina will play the Netherlands in the quarterfinals, in a duel in which the youngest coach of the World Cup, Scaloni, will face the most experienced, Louis Van Gaal.
“It is a pride to face him, when I played in Spain he was already an eminence. Everyone knows what he has done for football, how many have tried to imitate what he was doing. These are the nice things that football gives you.”
The coach also valued the Dutch team.
“It is a team that has things very clear, maybe it does not shine like other teams of the past, but it has very strong points (…) It’s going to be a very nice match with two historic teams,” he concluded.
