Having won all their three group matches with ease, South American giants Brazil will start clear favourites when they take on the unfancied Honduras in a pre-quarterfinal match of the FIFA U-17 World Cup, in Kochi tomorrow.
Seeking their fourth title, Brazil won all their matches to top Group D. They began with a dominating 2-1 win over title-contenders Spain and then outplayed both North Korea and Niger with identical 2-0 margins to set up a round of 16 clash with Group E's third-place finishers Honduras.
But they are not expected to have it this easy against the South American giants, who have been in excellent form so far. Besides winning all three of their group matches, they have conceded just one goal while scoring six. Their strike duo of Lincoln and Paulinho have been deadly up front, ensuring that Brazil did not feel the absence of a certain Vinicius Junior. The duo have shared five goals between them of the total six scored in the group stage—the other goal coming from Brenner—and their on-field understanding has been excellent.
With the football-mad Kochi crowd at the Jawaharlal Nehru International Stadium set to support Brazil overwhelmingly, it is going to be a tough job for Honduras to keep the Brazilian attackers at bay. This will be the last time the Kochi crowd will see the Brazillians in this FIFA U-17 World Cup and the South American champions will be up against a confident Germany in the quarterfinals in Kolkata on October 22 if they beat Honduras tomorrow. Germany yesterday thrashed Colombia 4-0 in the pre-quarterfinals in New Delhi.
Meanwhile, in Mumbai, two-time champions Ghana will be overwhelming favourites when they take on continental neighbours Niger in Navi Mumbai.
Ghana are strong forces in the age-group competition having won it in 1991 and 1995 and having reached four out of five finals in the 1990s.
But Niger have the ability to cause an upset. In fact, it was Niger that had stopped five-time champions and geographical neighbours Nigeria from entering the competition held in India for the first time in the zonal stage in their home continent. Niger had pumped in a last-gasp goal against their more fancied and stronger rivals in the return leg after having lost the first leg 0-1 to Nigeria.
They won on aggregate and made it to the CAF Africa U-17 Cup of Nations competition, the last qualifying stage to book their berth to India. There, too, Niger exceeded expectations by earning a 2-2 draw against Angola, losing to another top team Mali 0-1 and beating Tanzania 1-0 to reach the semifinal, where they were beaten on penalties by Ghana, their rivals tomorrow, before losing 1-3 to Guinea in the third place match.
Here in Group D, they have not been impressive though. They have been beaten by European champions Spain (4-0) and South American champions Brazil (2- 0) and have made it to the Round-of-16 only by beating North Korea 1-0 and finishing third in the group with three points.
It was Salim Abdourahmane who netted their match-winner in the second half against the North Koreans which earned them a last 16 berth by virtue of being one of the four best third place finishers in the preliminary group stage of the competition.
In their Group A clashes, Ghana hit their straps by topping it with 1-0 and 4-0 victories over Colombia and hosts India interspersed with a 0-1 loss to the US.
