Spain’s TikiTaka to check Mali’s second U17 World Cup final entry

NAVIMUMBAI: A battle of contrasting styles of football will be on view when classical Spain crosses swords with a robust Mali in the semifinal of the FIFA U-17 World Cup here on Wednesday.

The semifinal contest at the D Y Patil Stadium is expected to produce top-drawer football with Euro U17 champions Spain adopting their Tiki-Taka (shortpassing) style of play in trying to overcome the free-flowing and attacking manner of play by African champions Mali.

Both the teams have progressed to the last eight after losing their opening games, Spain to another top title-favourite and South American champions Brazil and Mali to another Latin American outfit, Paraguay, respectively.

While Spain have played mostly in the southern coastal city of Kochi, Mali have a slight advantage of having played at the DY Patil Stadium in two Group B games before travelling out and returning to the same venue in under a fortnight’s time.

How much of an advantage the familiarity of the playing surface will be for Mali will be known tomorrow with one small difference from their stay and play earlier on – the rains have gone away.

In both of Mali’s previous games here, rains had made the ground wet and even in the quarter finals against fellow-Africans Ghana they had to brave a soggy field in Guwahati to sail through.

Three-time Euro U17 champions Spain will be confronted by the hard-tackling Africans who also play at a fast pace and the outcome will be determined by which team lasts longer in the trying conditions although the game has an 8 pm start.