Bielsa - thought Argentina were better team (Allsport)
BIELSA FEELS UNLUCKY
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Argentina coach Marcelo Bielsa insisted they did
not deserve to lose Friday's World Cup showdown because they were more skilful
than the England team.
Argentina, one of the favourites to win the tournament, were beaten 1-0
in Sapporo and now they must beat Sweden to guarantee themselves a place in the
second round.
"Before the match we believed we had a bigger chance to win," he said.
Argentina defeated Nigerial 1-0 in their opening game.
"We thought we could win, but the result we deserved and we didn't reach was
a draw," Bielsa said.
"There were two different halves. In the first, the match was close and
even; our achievements were related to our skills and England's chances were
more related to our mistakes than to their skills."
England scored with a penalty kick from David Beckham in the first half.
"In the second half, after the first 10 minutes, we created chances that make
us think that we may tie the match."
Bielsa said England's performance had not surprised him.
"In a World Cup there're no surprises. We know what each team can offer,"
he said.
As for Argentina's ability to regroup in time for the all-important final
group F match against Sweden, Bielsa said they must immediately put today's
loss behind them.
"We have to take distance from the sadness and focus on the next match," he
said.
"Our near future is a match where we play for our qualification. That forces
us to focus as soon as possible on it."
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Argentina midfielder Diego Simeone was also reluctant to concede that England
were the better team.
"We had the ball control and we created some chances, but sadly we couldn't
score," he said.
"England took advantage of the penalty kick they had and then locked in
defence completely."
Simeone also said he was not surprised by England's gritty performance.
"We expect them to play as they did it: playing defence and trying to take
advantage of our mistakes," he said.
Simeone refused to comment on confronting David Beckham again four years after
their on-field clash at France '98 that led to the Englishman being sent off.
"Nothing happened (today), this is just a game," he said.
The veteran midfielder added that Argentina must approach Wednesday's final
Group F game against Sweden with "calm and patience.
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Argentina midfielder Juan Sebastian Veron said the penalty converted by
Manchester United team-mate David Beckham had forced the South Americans to
revise their game plan.
"We knew that if they scored against us, everything would be much tougher,
and that's what happened." he said.
"England played as they wanted - with counter-attacks and long balls to
Heskey and Owen. We didn't have space to play and that made things hard for
us."
Veron, who was replaced at half-time, admitted Argentina's formidable
strikeforce had succumbed to pressure.
"We had no precision in attack, (we needed) to be calmer with the ball, but
these games are very intense," he said.
"We could have played more defensively but we went looking for the victory
from the kick-off."
Nevertheless, Veron insisted all was not lost.
"Now we have to look ahead and defeat Sweden to advance to the
quarter-finals. We have to analyse what we did to avoid repeating the (same)
mistakes," he added.
Kily Gonzalez struggled to salvage something positive from today's defeat,
Argentina's first in 19 matches.
"We have to be happy for the team's attitude, but we know we didn't play a
good match," he said.
"It may hurt a bit more, but during the World Cup you will face a lot of
teams with history in matches that you don't want to lose.
"For us it was just one more rival, knowing that a victory would have
qualified us.
"The defeat hurts and it will keep hurting. But tomorrow we have to forget
about it and show what we can do against Sweden. We had two chances, now we have
one left."
"Bielsa told us that we made a lot of mistakes, but that we have to be
calm."
Gonzalez was replaced during the second half by Claudio Lopez, who admitted
that losing to England was tough to take.
"We lost against the rival that we didn't want to lose to, but it's better to
lose now and not in the future," he said.
"We didn't play well. If we play to our level, England are not better than
us.
"England took advantage of the chance they had when no team was dominating
the match.
"Now we have to forget this sadness and think of the future, which is much
more important."
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