Irene Paredes was one of the most excited players in the Sky Stadiyum changing room tunnel after beating the Netherlands. A victory that not only means the ticket to the World Cup semifinals, but also a cry of liberation for a footballer who has experienced a carousel of emotions in the last year. The one who was captain of the selection was designated as one of the leaders of the revolt of 15 o’clock, they won their first Champions League, He lost his father just a week before starting training for the tournament and now leads a group that has slipped into the top four teams in the world..
“I’m happy,” he says visibly excited. “We have been fighting this for many years and it is true that the Netherlands has fought to the end, that we could have been left out, but today the spear has fallen in our favor and we must enjoy it”, he summarizes. “The step forward is clear from how the whole game has taken place. Luckily we have not reached extra time. We have done merit to win the game before, but Salma has played Salma and has used her talent to score that goal and Thank you for still being here,” he stresses.
Paredes was the protagonist of one of the controversial actions of the party in which Frappart signaled a penalty for pushing Beerensteyn from Gipuzkoa that the VAR ended up annulling by showing that it was a simple charge. “The only doubt that I have had in the whole game is when the penalty was called. I was relatively calm because the VAR is there, but what the referee says is normally respected and what she had said was that it was a penalty and a yellow card. Oh, I had some doubts, but for the rest I have trusted a lot in this team”, he highlights. “She is a very good referee, she is very well recognized. She is usually quite fair and quite correct, but she has the help of the VAR that has helped us today,” he added.
Questioned about who she thought of when the referee whistled the end, Irene broke down.. She has not been able to answer. She evidently has the wound from the loss of her father still very tender. “I know that my number one fan will always be missing,” he highlighted in an interview with MARCA prior to the World Cup.. Surely, wherever he is, he will be sending all that strength that his wife, Luca Ybarra, and his son, Mateo, now give him in New Zealand.
