Kolkata: Tournament favourites Brazil and Germany made perfect starts to their U-17 World Cup aspirations after beating their respective opponents in their first match of the U-17 tournament. Brazil beat Spain 2-1 with goals from Lincoln and Paulinho at the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium in Kochi, while Germany defeated Costa Rica with a identical margin. Jan-Fiete Arp scored the opener while Awuku scored the winner in the last minute, after Costa Rica equalised through Andres Gomez at the Nehru stadium in Margao on Friday.
Both the teams showed real composure and attacking prowess in their respective matches, after breaking down the shackles of nervousness in the opening minutes. While Brazil came back from behind to win the match, Germany snatched a win in the very last minute of the match despite making a shaky start where Costa Rica could have scored two goals in two minutes, proving why they are considered to be top super-poewers of football.
Brazil faced Spain in what was the first high- voltage match of the World Cup and got off to a worst possible start after going down within the first five minutes, courtesy an own goal by Wesley. Spain completely dominated the first proceedings with Ferran Torres making darting runs in the righ-flank and constantly threatening the Brazilian defence.
However, after breaking through the opening nervousness the three time U-17 champions slowly made their way into the game as started combining well in the midfield. They got the much needed equaliser in the 25th minute when a perfect cross by Brenner found Lincoln in the box, the Selecon made no mistake in putting the ball into the net.
Spain slowly found themselves lost out of the game as the boys in yellow continued to dominate the proceedings, completely out marking Spain in midfield. They eventually took the lead in the injury time of the first half (45+1) after Marcos Antonio’s wonderful lobbed ball landed at the feet of Paulinho who made no mistake in firing his shot in the net to make it 2-1 for Brazil.
The Second half saw Spain desperate in attacks searching for a goal, they constantly increased men in the attacking third and out in regular crosses but Samba men stood firm in defence, while so putting in timely counter attacks they also had one goal cancelled for a foul but maintained their lead time in the match.
Germany on the other hand, almost coped two goals inside the opening fifteen minutes but came back in style to win the match. Captain Jan-Fiete Arp chipped the ball over the keeper to score the opener after midfielder Nicolas Kuuehn whobhad a brilliant match, fed him with a defence-splitting ball.
Jan Arp could have had his second goal of the night, but was denied by rival defender Amferny Arias. Costa Rica who out in a tireless shift throughout the match got their reward in the 64th minute when Josue Abarca sent in a delicious low cross in the box and Andre Gomes scored against the run of play.
The match looked almost set for a 1-1 draw but had a late drama as Awuku scored a last minute goal to snatch a win. Costa Rica who had been brilliant throughout the match failed to clear a clear ball, from which Awuku scored to help his side win the match.
Brief Scores:
GROUP C –
Margao: Germany 2 (J. Arp 21′ N. Awuku 89′) bear Costa Rica 1 (Andre Gomez 64′)
Iran 3 (Allahyar Sayyad 59′ Mohammad Sharifi 70′ PEN Saeid Karimi 90′) beat Guinea 1 (Fandje Toure 90’+1′)
GROUP D –
Kochi: Brazil 2 (Lincoln 25′ Paulinho 45+1′) beat Germany 1 (OG Wesley 05′)
Niger 1 (A. Abdourahmane 59′) beat Korea DPR 0