The dream of reaching the U17 World Cup semi final is over for the Germany youngsters. Christian Wück’s side lost to tournament favourites Brazil 2-1 in front of 66,600 enthusiastic spectators in Calcutta, despite a convincing performance for long periods of the game.
As the pressure from the South Americans grew, the hopes of earning a place as one of the top four teams in the world came to an abrupt end. With wonder strikes in the 71st and 77th minute, Weverson and Paulinho gave Brazil an ultimately decisive lead. Germany had led for a long time after Jann-Fiete Arp converted a spot-kick in the 21st minute. John Yeboah had been brought down to win the penalty for the young side.
“I have just one bad thing to say about the team today: We didn’t back our brilliant first-half performance up with a second goal,” Wück said. “The boys gave it their all, we were very disciplined in our game plan and played with a lot of passion. We knew that Brazil would put a lot of pressure on us in the second half. The boys are really upset that the World Cup dream is over. But this has shown that we can compete with some of the best teams in the world at this age group.”
Wolfsburg’s John Yeboah won Germany’s penalty in the 20th minute after receiving the ball from Arp and getting hacked down. Arp duly dispatched the penalty and it was the fifth goal of the tournament for the Hamburger SV striker.
After the break, the Brazilians improved immeasurably. And finally they got their just reward, with Weverson striking the ball onto the underside of the crossbar and into the net (77’). Then just over five minutes later, Paulinho struck the ball sweetly from 25 yards and it left the Germany and Werder Bremen goalkeeper, Luca Plogmann, no chance. The Germany youngsters had chances to level it at the end but they just could not get the ball over the line and their tournament came to an end.
[mmc/dr]
The dream of reaching the U17 World Cup semi final is over for the Germany youngsters. Christian Wück’s side lost to tournament favourites Brazil 2-1 in front of 66,600 enthusiastic spectators in Calcutta, despite a convincing performance for long periods of the game.
As the pressure from the South Americans grew, the hopes of earning a place as one of the top four teams in the world came to an abrupt end. With wonder strikes in the 71st and 77th minute, Weverson and Paulinho gave Brazil an ultimately decisive lead. Germany had led for a long time after Jann-Fiete Arp converted a spot-kick in the 21st minute. John Yeboah had been brought down to win the penalty for the young side.
“I have just one bad thing to say about the team today: We didn’t back our brilliant first-half performance up with a second goal,” Wück said. “The boys gave it their all, we were very disciplined in our game plan and played with a lot of passion. We knew that Brazil would put a lot of pressure on us in the second half. The boys are really upset that the World Cup dream is over. But this has shown that we can compete with some of the best teams in the world at this age group.”
Wolfsburg’s John Yeboah won Germany’s penalty in the 20th minute after receiving the ball from Arp and getting hacked down. Arp duly dispatched the penalty and it was the fifth goal of the tournament for the Hamburger SV striker.
After the break, the Brazilians improved immeasurably. And finally they got their just reward, with Weverson striking the ball onto the underside of the crossbar and into the net (77’). Then just over five minutes later, Paulinho struck the ball sweetly from 25 yards and it left the Germany and Werder Bremen goalkeeper, Luca Plogmann, no chance. The Germany youngsters had chances to level it at the end but they just could not get the ball over the line and their tournament came to an end.
