Staff Reporter.
A late goal from Luciano Rodríguez has given Uruguay a 1-0 victory over Italy in the FIFA Under-20 World Cup final in La Plata, Argentina.
Luciano Rodriguez returned from suspension to dramatically win Uruguay the Fifa U-20 World Cup™ for the first time. The right-sided attacker, who missed two games after a red card against The Gambia, bundled home a scrappy goal to make it third time lucky for his country in the final.
“This is crazy, crazy, crazy and we deserve it,” a tearful Rodríguez said after the match. “We are living a dream.”
Uruguay, roared on by masses of their supporters, were deserved winners in La Plata. Anderson Duarte had their best chance in the first half, but his firm, close-range header was acrobatically palmed over by Sebastiano Desplanches.
There was drama in the 81st minute. Matteo Prati went in high on Fabricio Diaz, and referee Glenn Nyberg showed him the red card. After a VAR review, however, Nyberg changed it to a yellow card, maintaining numerical balance.
The Uruguayan players felt aggrieved, but they managed to put it to the back of their minds and find that elusive goal. Alan Matturro did brilliantly to keep the ball in a congested box, and when it fell to Rodriguez, yards out, he fired it home.
Randall Rodriguez became just the third goalkeeper to keep six clean sheets in the competition after Chile’s Cristopher Toselli in 2007 and Mika of Portugal in 2011.
Italy coach Carmine Nunziata recognised Uruguay played better, but said the pitch condition affected his players.
“The pitch has penalised any player who has more skills,” Nunziata said. “We had an incredible run. This match doesn’t cancel what we have done, playing all these matches is not easy. They were better than us today.”
Neither Uruguay nor Italy were among the favorites when the U20 World Cup kicked off on May 20, but unlike Brazil, Argentina and England they faced less resistance from clubs about releasing players for the tournament.
The title for the Celeste comes in the wake of Argentina’s World Cup title in December, which also ended a sequence of wins of European teams.