France, then Argentina, now Italy stare into the snakepit

By Gavin Ellison, Miyagi

TEARS in Miyagi, jeers in Osaka, but the Group of Death claimed the least likely victim yesterday when Argentina followed joint favourites France out of the World Cup.

Juan Sebastian Veron issued a heartfelt apology to his compatriots last night after their failure to beat eventual group winners Sweden, despite dominating the game, enjoying a phenomenal 66% of possession.

Veron described hearing the final whistle yesterday as “the worst moment of my career”.

“I am absolutely devastated,” added Veron, who suffered further ignominy as he was left on the bench at the start of the match and was not introduced until after Sweden had taken the lead.

“Both myself and the team were hoping to give the World Cup as a present to the people of Argentina, but that is not now possible.

“Although we knew we were in a hard group, as a team, we all believed we could win the World Cup because we were all working so hard to achieve such a goal.

“But our dreams have now been trashed following this result, and so I would just like to apologise to the Argentinian people for our failure to qualify, and for our failure to bring the World Cup home.

“Although I am hurt, I am also calm. I can console myself with the fact we gave 100% in this game, but that we were just unlucky. This was a game we deserved to win.”

It is the first time Argentina failed to qualify for the second stage in the last eight World Cups in which they have participated, a remarkable record stretching back to 1962.

Now Italy, go into today’s final group G game against Mexico desperate to avoid completing the most unwanted hat trick in football the fall of the three favourites.

The Italians, three times world champions, have to win today’s clash with the Mexicans or they risk going out in the first round for the first time since 1974.

Italy coach Giovanni Trapattoni said that the big-name teams could be suffering from the strain of playing in high pressure championships.

“I was talking to (Michel) Platini about this and we were saying that the stress of the championships and the fact that there was so little time to recover before the World Cup means that the fresher teams are sharper at the moment.”

It would be a “disaster” if Italy lose to Mexico, striker Christian Vieri said. “We need to win to go forward…we have no choice but to be aggressive, ruthless and not give up for one second.

“It has been a strange World Cup... and if France and Argentina can go out, so can Italy. We are now staring into the snakepit.”