November 24, 2022, 1:49 PM
November 24, 2022, 1:49 PM
Uruguayan midfielder Federico Valverde said he was happy to have made his World Cup debut on Thursday, in a 0-0 draw with South Korea. for Group H of Qatar 2022 and regretted not having achieved victory.
“It is a dream achieved with my family, I enjoy it a lot”said the 24-year-old Real Madrid player, chosen the best player of the match played on Thursday at the Education City stadium in Doha.
Valverde told what happened “I was also nervous before the game, but it was a very nice experience.”
El Halcón four years ago was left out of the World Cup in Russia by decision of the then DT de la Celeste, Oscar Tabárez, something that was questioned by many in Uruguay.
“I am very sorry that we could not have achieved the victory, we have worked during the 90 minuteswe have made an enormous sacrifice, and I think that if we continue like this, things will turn out well for us”, added Valverde, who finished the clash against the South Koreans “very well on a physical level”, according to what he said.
The midfielder created Uruguay’s best goal chance of the match, when at minute 89 he took one of those characteristic shots of hisbut the ball hit an angle of the South Korean goal and went wide.
“I always imagine when I hit him that he’s going to go in. I didn’t have the luck”, he lamented. This is part of football, he added, you have to “keep insisting”. “In one (he finished off incorrectly and) I gave Facu (Pellistri) a pass, accidentally, and the other I hit it very well, but it didn’t go in.”
The issue is that “when you want to have so much contact with the ball, you stay very far (from the opposite goal), and you can’t finish off. I have to keep trying, it’s one of my good qualities,” said the Falcon, who flew over Doha.
The goalkeeper Sergio Rochet also said that he had a “bitter taste” for the tie because although he recognized that it was an “even match”the “clear” scoring chances were generated by Uruguay, which lacked “luck”.
Rochet also made his World Cup debut like Valverde and other Celeste starters this Thursday as the winger Mathías Olivera and the attackers Darwin Núñez and Facundo Pellistri, in addition to the midfielder Nicolás de la Cruz and the winger Matías Viña, who entered in the second half.
The goalkeeper declared himself “happy with the delivery of the team”, es urged to leave the debut behind and think about “correcting mistakes for what is to come, which is going to be very hard”
Uruguay faces Portugal on Monday in the second date and Ghana on December 2 in the closing of Group H. “Our group is very even,” admitted Rochet, who was convinced that “it will cost all the teams because the best play here.”
