Argentina coach Jorge Sampaoli complains that his side has to play its final World Cup warm-up match in Israel.
A hat-trick from Lionel Messi gave Argentina an easy 4-0 win over Haiti on Tuesday in Buenos Aires and the squad will fly to Barcelona on Thursday to continue its preparations.
The match in Jerusalem against Israel will be its last before traveling to Russia.
“I’m not the one who decides when we play and who we play,” Sampaoli says after the victory against Haiti at La Bombonera.
Sampaoli stresses he does not want to get drawn into any comment on the tension between Israelis and Palestinians.
But he says: “From a sporting point of view, I would have preferred to play in Barcelona. But that’s the way it is, we have to travel on the day before the match, play Israel in Israel and then from there go on to Russia. That is the schedule that the AFA (the Argentinian football federation) have given us.”
All 20,000 tickets for the friendly in Jerusalem sold out in 20 minutes, the company handling the sales said.
— AFP
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Wednesday, May 30, 2018
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