Buenos Aires, June 9 (BNA): Italy and Uruguay will advance to their first ever U-20 World Cup title when the two nations meet in the final on Sunday.
Italy ousted South Korea with a 2-1 victory in the semi-finals on Thursday after Uruguay beat Israel 1-0.
Both matches were played at the Unico Diego Armando Maradona stadium in La Plata, which will also host the final and the play-off for third place, reports the Associated Press.
Uruguay reached the tournament final in 1997 and 2013, losing tournament matches to Argentina and France on those occasions, and Italy will play with destiny for the first time.
The evening match between Italy and South Korea provided more than 20,000 spectators with one of the best matches of the tournament, with goalkeepers Sebastiano Deplanches and Kim Jun-hong working hard from start to finish.
Italy opened the scoring in the 14th minute through the player of the tournament so far. Cesar Casady fired from the edge of the penalty area despite being packed by three South Korean players to slot the ball into the net for the seventh time at the U-20 World Cup.
South Korea equalized with Lee Sung-won’s penalty kick in the 23rd minute, after a video review of the decision.
Both teams missed chances going forward, including one for Italy that required a goal-line review. The deadlock was broken in the 86th minute, when substitute Simone Pavondi scored from a free kick.
The Italian squad re-emerged in the knockout stages with wins over England and Colombia after finishing third in their group.
Striker Anderson Duarte scored Uruguay’s only goal of the first semi-final in the 61st minute from close range, one of the few chances both sides had during the match.
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