India will see what it has not seen in football so far: Ceppi
NEW DELHI: FIFA U-17 World Cup’s tournament director Javier Ceppi says India will see a brand of football it has not witnessed so far, in the upcoming mega-event.
The tournament will be held across six cities from October 6 to 28.
“It is a great moment to be a football fan in the country, as the best youth national teams and players across the world will be coming here in less than 120 days and will show a quality of football that has not been seen in India before,” Ceppi said.
Some of the top footballing nations such as Brazil, Germany, Spain, France and Colombia are going to compete in the tournament, the first FIFA event in the country.
“We know that fans have huge expectations because they have picked up a large part of the inventory of tickets we had put up for sale and we are sure that they will not be disappointed by what they will see and experience in each of the venues. “The fans will make sure that football takes over India from now until October,” Ceppi said.
With the FIFA U-20 World Cup concluding with England emerging champions, the focus has now shifted to the U-17 event.
“Now that the FIFA U-20 World Cup Korea 2017 has had a fantastic culmination, all the attention of the football fans on the planet will shift to India.
“It will be our duty to deliver the next FIFA World Cup in the calendar, the FIFA U-17 World Cup India 2017,” said Ceppi.
The official draw for the event will be held in Mumbai on July 7. PARIS: Ousmane Dembele helped France beat England 3-2 with a late winner in an international football friendly at the Stade de France here.
Tuesday night’s game was tied at 2-2 when the 20-year-old Dembele scored off an assist by the 18-year-old sensation Kylian Mbappe in the 78th minute, reports Xinhua news agency.
France lost last weekend’s World Cup qualifiers 2-1 to Sweden due to a fatal error from their goalkeeper Hugo Lloris in the stoppage time. However, the head coach Didier Deschamps still kept Lloris as their skipper, also bringing in Mbappe, Dembele and Thomas Lemar into the attacking line-up.
A minute of silence was observed to honour the victims of recent attacks in Manchester and London before the match, with French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Theresa May also on the stand.
Harry Kane, last season’s Premier League top scorer, opened the scoring account as early as in the ninth minute, when Raheem Sterling’s back-heel freed Ryan Bertrand from the left wing to set up a low cross, and the Tottenham Hotspur striker coolly put the ball into the net.
France forward Olivier Giroud had his volley ruled offside on 14 minutes, and Dembele wasted a chance of levelling the score in just two minutes, only to see his shot off the post.
The hosts managed to score an equalizer in the 22nd minute, as Lemar’s free kick found Giroud, whose header was blocked by the goalkeeper Tom Heaton, while central defender Samuel Umtiti followed in to make it.
They went on to get an upper hand in score shortly before the break. Heaton stopped Dembele’s brilliant shot, but failed to finish another save on right back Djibril Sidibe’s shot on the rebound. However, there was much concern for France early in the second half.