Last night Uruguay almost pulled off the greatest upset in the history of the World Cup. It was a performance that ignited the spirits of underdogs everywhere as the 17th-ranked team put the hosts to the sword.
Following an early French penalty, Uruguay took the lead in the 7th minute thanks to a fantastic finish by Nicolas Freitas. This was to be the start of a beautifully fluid South American performance that caught a French side, looking for an easy victory, off guard.
The underdogs continued to challenge the home side, and remained within reach right up until the final ten minutes when the hosts pulled away with a Louis Bielle-Biarrey try.
Captain Andres Vilaseca embodied the passion and pride the Uruguayan side had in a brilliant post-match interview.
Watch the interview here:
In a later press conference, the captain emphasised how far the side has come, and that he was not surprised by the performance.
“The first comment that comes to my mind is the number of journalists I see here compared to the press conference for our team announcement when I saw two people, so I just wanted to highlight how few journalists were there.
“Secondly, I'm very proud of this team, somebody said this was a surprise and we might have imagined that this was a historic game but for us, within the group, we know we are well prepared and we've been prepared for a long time. We came here today to win, to beat France with everything.
“Over four years Uruguay has only played a tier one team once, and today we've played the number three team in the world playing at home and I think only 10 minutes from the end we were at 13 – 12.
“We were only down by one point so this might surprise some but for us it's clear that we are able to match any team.”
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