2024-08-03 13:15:22
Javier Mascherano had one revenge left with France. Argentina lost the 2018 World Cup against France. Mascherano was also in that team. There was a chance for revenge at the Paris Olympics. But Argentina could not, coach Mascherano could not. This former player cannot accept such a departure from Argentina from Paris.
Argentina has been eliminated from the tournament after losing 1-0 to France in the quarter-finals of the Olympic football. Coming to the press conference after the loss, Mascherano said, ‘This is not new. It is not right to come to any conclusion now. We didn’t score. The first 15 minutes of the match were tough, especially after the early goal conceding. The team then settled down and had several chances to equalise.’
Argentina played great in the whole match. Mascherano’s team could not distinguish themselves only in the finish. The voice of the former defender expressed a little regret about this, ‘The experience I have gone through is nothing new. That’s football. After doing everything possible to avoid defeat, we had to return empty-handed.’
Despite creating 16 goal chances, Argentina failed to score once. According to the Argentina coach, they were not destined to reach the semi-finals, ‘we created more chances than our opponents. But football does not understand talent. This is the reality and today (yesterday) was our turn to go home.’
Mascherano has played three World Cup matches for Argentina and is not thinking about leaving after such a loss. In response to a question from TYC Sports, the former defensive midfielder said, ‘I am not thinking about the future. Let’s go back to the hotel first and try to digest the loss.’
Three players of the world winning team played in this year’s Olympic team of Argentina. But they could not do anything special. Still, Mascherano thanked them, ‘I am grateful to the three senior players. They reached out to us to help. Gratitude to the youth too.’