Argentina FA blasts Batista over Nigeria drubbing • No shame losing to Eagles -Batista

Posted by admin Headlines Thursday, June 2nd, 2011

ARGENTINE Football Association (AFA) president, Julio Grondona has accused coach Sergio Batista of jeopardising the reputation of the national side, following the 4-1 friendly loss to Nigeria.

The humbling defeat in Abuja last Wednesday arrived just a month before the start of the Copa America (July 1-24), which Argentina will host.

“These matches aren’t for making money, they’re friendly matches that Batista asked for,” Grondona told Argentine radio station Radio Mitre.

“You can’t mess around like that with the prestige of the national side.”

Grondona expressed his discontent with Batista, who had selected a squad shorn of stars and largely composed of inexperienced players for the trip to west Africa.

“It will be different in the future,” warned Grondona.

“You can’t play against a team like Nigeria, who fielded their best players, with a team that is not up to scratch.”

For his part, Batista had claimed that “these outings are useful, whatever the result, because it allows you to see the players of the future”.

Meanwhile, ARGENTINA coach, Sergio Batista, says he will not lose any sleep over the 1-4 loss to Nigeria’s Super Eagles saying that his team lost to a great side.

“We played against a great team. This match has afforded us the platform to evaluate the performance of our players before going for the Copa America,” he said.

“It is a long process (in building a strong new team) and we are building the team for the Copa America and for the 2014 World Cup.

“The time was also too short to play this match. We had only two days to prepare for this friendly,” said Batistawp_posts