Germán Portanova, coach of the Argentine national team, said that the most “fair” would have been a draw against the Italians, who prevailed 1-0 with a goal in the 87th minute in the debut match of the Albicelestes in Group G of the 2023 Women’s World Cup.
“We feel that we were competitive. I feel a bit of everything, in my opinion the fairest thing was a draw”, Portanova said at the press conference. “We leave satisfied, sad about the final result, but in football you can lose by going looking, pressing high. We couldn’t keep it over the end. There was merit from the center and the header (from Girelli). A detail made us lose 1-0 but I am calm with my players because they left everything“, assured the coach.
“We can’t play a match stick by stick because what happened in the last few minutes happens and benefits the fastest player. We started an intelligent match, with blocks and high pressure, but the fatigue of the game made us go back towards the end“, analyzed the DT, who valued the courage shown by his team against a rival with a better record like the European team. “He was coming out with touches without fear and from our place we managed to get Italy to throw the ball. There were moments. Before the game I told the players to have fun and play easy. They did it“, he stressed.
Portanova, DT of the team selected two years ago, stressed that “for us to win is to star in the game and at times we did. In soccer many times you lose and sometimes you win. We knew that a setback could come but we came to play a World Cup, not a game”, explained the former UAI coach Urquiza, who is already thinking about the commitment on Thursday at 9:00 p.m.: “You have to turn the page and think about South Africa”
“We know that South Africa has its very fast brunettes but we want to make matches that transcend, block stopsnot playing stick by stick because in the space we leave they can score goals for us”Portanova closed, regarding the duel of the second date of Group G, which will be played this Thursday at 9:00 p.m. in Dunedin.