Football
Nick Said, Special to ESPN 7y

Argentina humble Guinea to keep second round hopes alive

Guinea are out of the 2017 FIFA Under-20 World Cup after a 5-0 thrashing at the hands of Argentina in their final Group A clash in Jeju on Friday.

Goals from Marcelo Torres, Lautaro Martinez (two), Matias Zaracho and Marcos Senesi sealed the victory for the South American side that keeps alive their hopes of reaching the second round.

Guinea end the pool stage with a single point gained in a 1-1 draw with England in their second match and will now be headed home.

England top the pool with seven points, followed by hosts South Korea (six) and Argentina (three), who must now wait for other results over the next few days to see if they are one of the best third-place finishers.

The five goals they have scored have provided a significant boost to their goal-difference, which could be a deciding factor in the end.

Argentina thought they had the lead on 12 minutes through Santiago Colombatto's header after Torres had hit the crossbar, but the effort was correctly ruled offside by the match officials.

The same two players were involved again when Argentina did take on the lead on 33 minutes though.

Colombatto laid a sumptuous ball across the six-yard box that was missed by the Guinea defence and Torres side-footed home at the back post.

Guinea goalkeeper Sekouba Camara did well to save a long-range effort from Martinez after initially being caught off his line, but scrambling back to beat the ball to safety.

It was 2-0 before the break though with a beautiful strike from the edge of the box by Martinez. He collected the ball on his chest, turned and thundered the ball into the top corner of the net.

And the South American side added another five minutes after the break as they flooded forward on attack and wing-back Zaracho headed past Camara.

Guinea were struggling with high balls into the box and fell further behind when defender Senesi rose highest to meet a free-kick.

The African side were crumbling defensively and it was no surprise when Argentina added a fifth as Martinez added a second after a clever free-kick played him into space in the box.

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