“We’re in the quarterfinals and that’s what matters,” commented Argentina’s Carlos Tevez following his side’s 3-1 defeat of Mexico in their last round of 16 match at Soccer City on Sunday evening.
Tevez opened the scoring on the night with a highly controversial goal in the 26th minute, heading home from a clearly off-side position.
Still, despite that the Manchester City striker believes his side were the better team and would have scored sooner or later: “The goal stood and we got another two. We were always going to score.
On the match itself Tevez does admit that Mexico were no easy opponents, but in the end Argentina’s class shone through: “The first couple of minutes were really difficult for us. We were not able to run the match and that made life hard for us. After that, it only got better as we slowly took control of the game and deserved the win.”
Argentina did, in fact, start a little poorly but were quickly scared into their playing rhythm when Mexico struck the woodwork in only the eighth minute of the match. Thereafter the South Americans quickly began playing the style of football that has seen them win all of their group matches and consequently their last round of 16 match.
Now they will face their toughest challenge when they take on Germany in the quarter-finals in a repeat of the quarter-final from the 2006 FIFA World Cup. At that tournament the Argentineans fell to the mighty Germany side, but Tevez says things will be different this time round.
“We have to rest and be ready for that game. It is a game we have to win if we want to lift the trophy and that is what we plan on doing,” said the striker of the upcoming game against the Germans.
Argentina’s coach Diego Maradona was not his usual talkative self on the night and looked like a man focused on a goal. He did, however, say that his side was the better team on the night a fully deserved the win.
“I want to congratulate my players. Argentina was superior over the 90 minutes. My players kept the ball well and passed it well. That is what you have to do to win games,” concluded Maradona.