His exit for a tear in the 34th minute in Celeste’s last match in Qatar (against Ghana on December 2nd), or even his anger expressed a few days earlier when he failed to conclude a fantastic individual game against Portugal, does not they should make us forget the great performance Bentancur had in this 2022, who started as a Juventus player in Italy, leaving on January 31 for England to join Spurs.
Lolo arrived at Juve in July 2017 from Boca, and in Italy he won three Scudetti, two Italian Cups and two Italian Super Cups. While his move was confirmed in Europe, Bentancur played key points in South America for qualifying at the start of Diego Alonso’s cycle in charge of the Uruguayan national team following Maestro Tabárez’s sacking at the end of November.
Bentancur was a starter in victories against Paraguay and Venezuela, scoring his first goal in the blue shirt against the wine-red cast on 1 February.
Upon his return to Europe, the footballer born on 25 June 1997 joined Antonio Conte’s Tottenham side, welcomed by Argentinian Cuti Romero and French goalkeeper Hugo Lloris.
On 5 February he made his debut with Tottenham’s 30th shirt, entering in the FA Cup victory against Brighton, and four days later he made his debut in the Premier League (3-2 defeat against Southampton).
In his first half-season in England, Bentancur ended up playing 18 games (17 in the Premier League and one in the FA Cup), only in the win against Leeds and the defeat to Middlesbrough in the FA Cup with a right ankle injury after making a move wrong in the match against Burnley at the end of February.
As the injury was not serious, the midfielder was also able to play for Tottenham before playing the last two matches of Celeste’s qualifiers at the end of March, who beat Peru 1-0 at the Centenario with a goal. Giorgian De Arrascaeta added the his third consecutive victory and confirmed his qualification for Qatar 2022.
At the World Cup, Lolo started all three of Celeste’s matches and, despite the team’s rather defensive attitude, had a good performance in the 0-0 defeat against South Korea and an excellent performance in the defeat against Portugal, for example, where he achieved an all-time record: with 19 steals he became the player with the most steals in a World Cup match in the entire 21st century.
In Celeste’s last match in Qatar (against Ghana for the third round of Group H), Bentancur had to go off in the 34th minute when Uruguay were already winning 2-0 with a brace from De Arrascaeta, a victory that wasn’t enough to causes victory Simultaneously from South Korea to Portugal in the same area.
Thus, at the age of 25, Bentancur reaches eight appearances in the World Cup and closes a year that borders on excellence in 2022, reaffirming in Qatar 2022 and in the Premier League the potential he had shown in Boca and developed at Juventus.
