Washington (dpa)
Argentina star Rodrigo De Paul called for pride in what his team is achieving in the South American Football Cup “Copa America 2024”, currently being held in the United States, while praising the performance of his teammate, goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez.
Argentina advanced to the semi-finals of the Copa America, after beating Ecuador 4-2 on penalties in the quarter-finals of the competition.
The original time ended in a 1-1 draw, so the two teams resorted to penalty kicks, which ultimately smiled in favor of Argentina, thanks to the brilliance of Martinez, who saved two penalty kicks from the Ecuadorian team, making up for the penalty kick that was wasted by his teammate Lionel Messi, the team captain, who hit the crossbar.
“We knew the game was going to be like this,” De Paul said after the match. “We wanted to play better with the ball, but there were many things that didn’t allow us to do that.”
“The team ran and scored a goal to take the lead. There was a great performance from everyone,” De Paul added in his statements, which were reported by the Argentine Football Association’s official website.
The Argentine player stressed, “We should be proud of everything we achieve.”
“We had some chances, it was a close game, they equalised in the last moments, it was really unfortunate, we were born to suffer, but the whole country was with us,” De Paul explained.
De Paul praised Martinez, saying: “What he does is crazy, he deserves it, he loves this atmosphere, he gives us a lot of security and peace of mind.”
“In these important cases, Dibo (Martinez) is always there,” De Paul concluded. The defending champions will meet the winner of the Venezuela-Canada match in the semi-finals, as the world champions aim to win the Copa America for the 16th time, and to set a record for the most titles, which they currently share with Uruguay.
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