❌ Chaos before last 16, World Cup coach lashes out | OneFootball

Confusion ahead of the World Cup round-of-16 clash between Mexico and England! The match was originally scheduled to kick off on Sunday at 6 p.m. local time (Monday, 2 a.m. German time) at the Azteca Stadium. But reports from Mexico caused a stir on Friday: according to them, FIFA was planning to bring the kick-off forward by six hours because of threatened severe weather in the capital – to 8 p.m. German time.

In the end, however, the original kick-off time was set to remain. But first things first. Mexico coach Javier Aguirre had added to the confusion by confirming the alleged change and becoming visibly furious. At a press conference held by the Mexican federation, he said: "Changing the kick-off time of this match is like a punch to the stomach. We have to completely throw our plans out the window. We have to follow FIFA’s instructions, but they’ve ruined our plans."

Once he got going, the 67-year-old continued bluntly in the media session: "We had planned a brunch, then the activation session, and then a tactical meeting. Now we have to move everything forward by 6 hours. We also have to adjust our nutrition. It’s not the same eating pasta at 8 in the morning as it is at 3 p.m."

Because of the confusion over the kick-off time, some fans even put their tickets up for sale online, assuming they would not be able to make the supposed new start time in time.

On Friday evening, however, came the U-turn. After intensive talks with both federations and taking the latest weather forecasts into account, FIFA decided to keep the originally scheduled kick-off time.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.

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