Controversies continue in the U-20 World Cup. After being questioned by a player who supposedly plays for a fictitious club, the Nigerian team gave a surprise in the round of 16 of the U-20 Soccer World Cup after leaving the Argentine team on the road and celebrating in a way that was rejected by the abiceleste fans
With a final score of 2-0 thanks to goals from Ibrahim Muhhamad and Rilwanu Haliru, the “Flying Eagles” advanced to the quarterfinals and joined the teams of Israel, the United States, South Korea, Italy, Uruguay, Brazil and Colombia in the next qualifying instance of the World Cup.
Once the match was over and after having eliminated the host team, a couple of Nigerian players took the shot of one of the cameras of the transmission to make the sign of “cutting the neck” with their finger, in reference to the elimination of Argentina. This gesture sparked outrage on social networks and in the stadium itself by local fans.
However, some other network users remembered the celebrations of the champion team in the past World Cup in Qatar 2022, especially those of the goalkeeper Emiliano “Dibu” Martínez. The African team passed as one of the best third parties in the group stage and will face South Korea this Sunday, June 4.
It should be noted that the Nigerian team had a rather bumpy pre-game with a delay of more than nine hours on the flight that transferred them from Buenos Aires to the city of San Juan, where they faced the host team with just one preparation training.
The departure of Mascherano?
After the defeat, the Albiceleste coach Javier Mascherano said at a press conference that “life goes on, it hurts us, it hurts our souls. I think we did everything to be able to continue in this championship, but I am leaving with the peace of mind that today it was us”.
“I will continue in office until the president of AFA (Claudio “Chuiqui” Tapia) decides, because he has the resignation available (…) My idea is to continue if they believe that I am good for this. And if I can continue contributing things”, added the former FC Barcelona defender.
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