Post by Jep Gambardella on Jul 7, 2021 14:32:37 GMT
It's Cardona for Colombia. He has to score, he has to score. He's given himself a fair run-up. Can he pull it back to 3-3 and hope that Ospina can save Argentina's 5th penalty? (Yes, I know am watching a replay and already know the outcome but I am excited) Martinez doesn't say a word, he's keeping quiet this time, just moving up and down on his line...Cardona...Cardona...Cardona - he's fired it down the middle and it's parried by Martinez! The Argentina players run towards him from the halfway line - but Martinez is not celebrating. He's wearing a quizzical expression. He wants confirmation from the ref who hasn't yet signalled the save was legitimate... Wait - the ref is listening intently to his earpiece...Yes, it's confirmed. The save was good.
Argentina has won the shootout by 3 goals to 2.
The Argentina contingent celebrate in clusters as they look forward to an encounter with Brazil in Sunday's Final.
The final is on Saturday actually - maybe to avoid competition with the Euro final? Although they wouldn't be at the same time. The kick-off time is terrible for European audiences - 1 AM in the UK - but it's good for the Americas and for East Asia - and considering the amount of Chinese-language advertisements in the stadiums, I suppose the TV rights for China must have cost a pretty penny.
I thought it was strange that Martinez didn't celebrate right away. I would expect him to try to create a fait accompli even if he was not sure if he had jumped too early or not.