Tommy Smith and Monty Patterson’s New Zealand fell to their second defeat at the Confederations Cup as a Mexico side featuring former Blues loanee Giovani Dos Santos came from behind to win 2-1 in Sochi. The result means the All Whites cannot progress to the next stage of the tournament.
Another ex-Town loan player, Leeds United’s Chris Wood, deservedly put the All Whites ahead in the the 42nd minute but the Mexicans improved in the second half and claimed the three points via Raul Jimenez on 54 and Oribe Peralta 18 minutes from time, although New Zealander had enough chances to have won the game.
Smith played the full 90 minutes and won his 34th cap, while Patterson came off the bench in the 82nd minute to pick up his 13th.
As in Saturday’s 2-0 defeat to Russia, Smith wasn’t far away from adding to his two international goals with a second half header. Whereas on Saturday his attempt was cleared off the line, this time the Blues centre-half was unable to get enough on a long throw from the right and Mexico keeper Alfredo Talavera saved.
Late on, the 27-year-old defender cleared what otherwise would have been a third Mexico goal off the line.
Gutted not to take more from that match 😔 lads put in a great shift and on another day we would have come away with 3 points #confedscup2017– Tommy Smith (@tommysmith1990) June 21, 2017
The game ended somewhat chaotically after a bout of handbags involving most of the players led to lengthy deliberations by the video assistant referees (VARs), which are being trialled at the the tournament, unseen by the crowd and for the most part by TV viewers.
The All Whites face Portugal, who beat Russia 1-0 earlier in the afternoon, in their final game in St Petersburg on Saturday.