… and with a late free kick from Simeone Pafundi, Italy defeated South Korea 2-1 to qualify for the U-20 World Cup Grand Final, where they will face Uruguay at La Plata in Sunday’s final.
Uruguay are the first finalists of the intriguing tournament after an extraordinarily tense game in La Plata on Thursday.
Anderson Duarte’s second half winning goal was Uruguay’s victory to secure their ticket to the Grand Final of the Argentina 2023 U-20 World Cup.
La Celeste played the majority of the game on the counter-attack, sitting solidly in defence with Duarte, De los Santos, González and others bursting forward at any opportunity Israel gave them during the game.
Sport Brief reports that in the first half, Israel’s goalkeeper, Tomer Zarfati, denied Uruguay striker Anderson Duarte, with the 19-year-old then hitting the woodwork.
On a far from perfect playing surface Israel held on gamely but were finally undone when Franco Gonzalez’s 61st minute strike hit the post, with Duarte on hand to slam home the rebound past Zarfati.
This is the third time Uruguay have reached the U-20 World Cup final. They were beaten on penalties by France in 2013, and by Argentina 2-1 in 1997.
Israel, it must be said, while they did not do enough to make it past the blue wall and into the final, played a fantastic game, as they have done all tournament. But the South American defence was just too strong, and they did excellently well for 90 minutes to frustrate Turgeman, which is something that had not happened until Thursday.
The Israelis stunned Brazil in the quarter-finals but their charmed progress through to the last four in the competition came to an end at La Plata’s Diego Maradona stadium.
In another match same Thursday night, With a late free kick from Simeone Pafundi, Italy defeated South Korea 2-1 to qualify for the U-20 World Cup Grand Final, where they will face Uruguay at La Plata in Sunday’s final.
According to en.as.com, Simeone Pafundi fired Italy to the final of the U20 World Cup for the first time in their history.
The Italians faced an impressive South Korea side who had beaten the likes of France and Nigeria on the way to the final four.
Italy started the semi-final as the more dominant of the two teams and broke the deadlock after 13 minutes.
Italy midfielder Cesare Casadei scored his seventh goal in six matches, all-but securing himself as the Golden Boot winner.
But Carmine Nunziata’s side did not have it all their own way and Korea equalised late on in the first half with a penalty, converted by captain Lee Seong-won.
Italy started the second half as the stronger of the two sides but after failing to find a second they began to tire. As the game entered the final ten minutes Korea looked like the team most likely to find a winner.
Enter Simeone Pafundi, the 17-year-old midfielder from Udinese. One of the youngest players at the tournament, within minutes of entering the fray he fired a brilliant free kick into the top corner to nudge his side into the lead.
Italy managed the final moments excellently and were probably deserved winners over the course of the 90 minutes. Heartbreak for Korea, but history made by Italy and their young star.
