June 6 – The U20 World Cup progressed to the semi-final stages in South Korea with England, Italy, Uruguay and Venezuela ensuring that it will be a Europe vs South America final. But not before there was proof that video technology is still very much at the experimental stage and needs fine-tuning after an incident that saw Italy’s Giuseppe Pezzella shown his marching orders in controversial circumstances. After Ecuadorean referee Roddy Zambrano awarded Zambia a spotkick when Edward Chilufya was adjudged to have been fouled, the incident went to the video assistant.
After a prolonged delay instead of a quick decision, Zambrano was advised to show Pezzella a straight red card and award Zambia a free-kick just outside the area even though contact appeared on tv pictures to be almost non-existent.
Despite going down to 10 men, Italy progressed to the semi-finals after fighting back to 2-2 in the 88th minute and then winning in extra time.
Italy face an unbeaten England team that overcame Mexico in their quarter final by a goal. This England team has now done something no other male England team has managed since 1993 in reaching the semi-finals of a FIFA tournament (the women’s team reached the semi-finals of the 2015 Women’s World Cup in Canada).
These are encouraging times for English youth football. Last season, the Under-21s won the Toulon tournament for the first time in 22 years while last month the Under-17s reached the final of the European Championships.
In the other quarter finals in South Korea, pre-tournament favourites Uruguay scraped past Portugal on penalties after the match ended 2-2. The ABBA penalty shoot-out order was in successful operation as the balance flowed between the two sides before the Uruguayan keeper Santiago Mele literally saved the day for the South Americans.
Uruguay now meet Venezuela who overcame a dogged USA 2-1 after extra time with a goal by Nahuel Ferraresi in the 115th minute.
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