ARGENTINA -SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO: Coaches' Quotes

16 June 2006

Jose PEKERMAN (ARG)
Argentina closed the game out really well after the first two goals. Serbia and Montenegro were meant to pose a big threat so it's an important victory for us. We’ve got a great squad, a team with a real will to win. They know what they want and they go out and get it. The injury to Lucho (Luis Gonzalez) was a big setback, but we just carried on playing good football. That’s very important too.

You’re all asking me who’s going to play against the Netherlands and that’s understandable, but I can’t make any decisions just yet. In the next few hours we’ll start thinking about what’s best for that game. What’s clear, though, is that they’re a very strong side and it will be a tough game.

As for the so-called 'Group of Death', well, in this game people always tend to look at what's happened in the past. Sometimes, though, things don’t turn out how you expect. That’s what makes football so exciting. When the draw was made the group looked very tight. The Netherlands were in transition and so were we. Serbia and Montenegro sent Spain into the play-offs and Côte d’Ivoire were the top African side, so yes, it looked tough. What’s happened, though, is just typical of football.

Mexico and Portugal are two very good footballing sides that qualified comfortably for the World Cup and have gone on from there. They’ll both be hard to beat.

Ilija PETKOVIC (SCG)
It's an absolutely terrible result, the worst in our history, and I've got take responsibility for it. I did what I could but nothing worked. I don’t want to point the finger at any player in particular. We made some errors for sure, but the buck stops with me.

I’ve got to lick my wounds so I’d rather not talk about Argentina. All I’ll say is that time will tell if they played a great game or we played a bad one. Today also shows that the qualifiers and the World Cup finals are two completely different things. You have to face different types of teams and the results are there for all to see. I’m not blind. We’ll just have to do what we can against Côte d’Ivoire.