ALAN VACCARO / AIPS* in ABU DHABI:  Coach Humberto Grondona, in his last press conference at the FIFA U-17 World Cup UAE 2013, explained that, despite defeat by Swdeden, the tournament had been a valuable learning experience for his players.

Argentina lost 4-1 in the third place play-off but Grondona was satisfied that his players had done their best.

He said: “Nothing changed in the last two games, only the results. This is football. We had 15 fatal minutes at the start and Sweden took advantage and were much better than us. In second half we tried all we could but the difference was too big.”

Despite the last two defeats Grondona said it had been “a great World Cup” by his players and assured them that they had no need to be disappointed by the result, they just had to “keep learning and improving”.

He added: “Because of two bad results we can’t say they have not won anything. We were first in qualifiers, first in our group and defeated too difficult rivals in Cote d’ Ivoire and Tunisia”.

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* AIPS, the international sports journalists association, is running a Young Reporters course at the FIFA U-17 World Cup UAE 2013 with the support of the local organising committee and FIFA

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