8th June, 2023
By Kazeem Ugbodaga
Uruguay have reached the final of the Under-20 World Cup in Argentina after beating hard-fighting Israel by a lone goal on Thursday.
After a goalless first half, Uruguay scored the only goal and the winner on 61 minutes.
A rebound found its way to Anderson Duarte and he scored with a powerful strike, leaving the goalkeeper helpless.
Earlier on 22 minutes, Alan Matturro Romero missed a big chance from point-blank range as he struck the ball towards the crossbar. His promising effort following the corner kick was, to his disappointment, thwarted by Tomer Tzarfati with a fabulous save.
Three minutes later, Tai Abed Kassus latched on to a precise pass and found himself one-on-one with the keeper. He fired a low shot towards the right side of the net, but Randall Rodriguez leapt like to deny him.
On 28 minutes, Anderson Duarte latched onto a pull back in the box right in front of goal, but his shot aimed inside the left post was pretty weak and Tomer Tzarfati made an easy save.
On 51 minutes, a great pass put Duarte clear inside the box, he side-stepped the keeper but inexplicably hit his shot against the left post.
On 76 minutes, Sebastian Boselli reacted well and displayed good awareness inside the box to get on the end of the resulting corner kick. He failed to direct the ball into the net as it flew narrowly over the crossbar.
Israel almost equalised on 85 minutes from a good run from Omer Senior. He found himself one-on-one with the goalkeeper, lined up a shot, but the keeper boldly launched himself to intercept the ball.