The debutants Israel go home in glory with the third place medal after dominating the match against South Korea on Sunday, 11 June, 2023, at Estadio Unico Diego Armando Maradona in La Plata.
The young players leave Argentina with bronze after historic run, and with their names engraved into the country’s soccer history books.
Recall that Israel’s brilliant run of form in the ongoing World Cup came to an end in the semi-final after they went down 1-0 against Uruguay on Friday. They finished second in their group behind Colombia and then beat Uzbekistan and Brazil in the two knockout games respectively to reach the last-four stage.
South Korea, on the other hand, fought valiantly against Italy but eventually faltered going down 2-1 which ended their dream of winning the coveted trophy.
According to supersport.com, Omer Senior and Anan Khalaili scored late on for Israel to claim third place in the Under-20 World Cup tournament on Sunday.
Attackers Senior and Khalaili were on the scoresheet in the final 14 minutes at La Plata’s Diego Maradona stadium as Israel ended their first appearance in the competition on a high.
They responded to the semifinal defeat quickly by opening the scoring in the third-placed play-off after 20 minutes as midfielder Ran Binyamin hit home.
Four minutes later South Korea equalised as Seung-Won Lee converted a penalty.
Israel had the best of the second half and with 20 minutes remaining, Senior had a goal disallowed for offside.
Six minutes later replacement Senior was on the scoresheet before Khalaili made sure of victory with four minutes to play but was subsequently yellow carded for taking his shirt off while celebrating.
Same Sunday night, Uruguay face Italy in the final with both sides eyeing their first World Under-20 crown.
It is worth noting that FIFA moved the competition to Argentina weeks before kick-off, as world football’s governing body withdrew Indonesia’s hosting rights after protests against Israel’s participation.
