Miguel Tojo (ARG), Argentina coach
"The emotional burden on the opening game of a World Cup always makes it difficult to play, but the way the game developed prevented us from repeating our good first-half display. We'd controlled the tempo but weren't able to find the opening goal that would have calmed us down a bit. We didn't keep the ball in the second half, we didn't control play and they had a couple of chances. On the balance of play I think we deserved to win, but Syria came away with a draw that will do their morale more good than it does ours."

Mohamed Aljomaa (SYR), Syriacoach
"We've been preparing for this game for three weeks, we practised our tactical plan and today the players carried it out perfectly. We put in a great second-half display and I think we deserved all three points. I'll tell my players not to worry about the result, that they've achieved a historic feat at their first U-17 World Cup, and that they also need to keep working hard. But I'm proud of how they played with so much freedom, so nervelessly and so fearlessly against one of the top two or three nations in world football."

Gustavo Fernandez (ARG), Argentinaplayer
"We weren't able to open the scoring in the first half, regrettably, and then things became much more difficult for us. Nerves started to take their toll, we began to tire in the second half and we couldn't play the way we'd planned."

Oday Al Jafal (SYR), Syria player
"I think we picked up a great result against Argentina, one that perhaps we weren't totally convinced we could get, but we did it playing very good football. In the dressing room we all felt that we should have won. But anyway, this draw is a big step forward and spurs us to keep improving."