It was rather a bad luck for Mexico or should we say a brilliant comeback from Spain when they came from behind and overcome their pre-quarterfinalist by 2-1 in the Under-20 world cup. Spain, who is already Under-19 European champion, will join other confirmed quarterfinalists France and Uzbekistan in the last eight. The match began keeping Spain as the favorite but when Arturo Gonzalez’s brilliant diagonal shot could not be stopped by Daniel Sotres, it was 1-0 on the scoreboard in Mexico’s favor. We have already seen in Confederation Cup final that what an initial lead can mean for a team, and here, when Mexico got the initial lead, it was like a repeat of Confed. cup final for Spain where they were in a similar situation after Fed’s initial goal. But today was the day for European champions and they showed the world why they are the top ranking team in the world. Soon after an initial trail, Spanish strikers took the game more aggressively by their wonderful shot passes theory, but they could not easily dump Mexico’s excellent defense. Though, they kept attacking on Mexican goalpost and finally, it was Real’s forward Derik and Jese who made their team cheer about right in the ninetieth minute of the game.
The final and decisive goal was fired in the injury time by Jese when both sides were trying to stretch the game into the extra time, but Jese had something different in his mind, he kept aggressive throughout the final moments by picking loose shots and finally found Abel Fuentes who deflated his shot and goalkeeper Richard Sanchez could not stop at all. It was a magnificent display of soccer from Spain especially in the last few moments of the match.
Real forward talked about his confidence over his team’s victory after the match, he said, “I saw the loose ball, ran for it and decided to go for it. Sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn’t, but I had to try and take advantage of the opportunity. I always believed in myself and also the team, even though time was running out.
“We knew it would be very tough and the first half was their’s as we didn’t start as we should have. We then took on more responsibility, more risks, and went for them, although it meant exposing ourselves to the counter-attack. However, in the end we were rewarded for playing good football and got the luck we didn’t get at the beginning. In the second half we played how we wanted, with personality and creating chances, so our opponents didn’t attack as much because they respected us more. When we pass the ball around and play together we are a great team.”