Brazil favourites against Honduras
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, here on Wednesday.
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 Brazillian attackers at bay.
This will be the last time the Kochi crowd will see the Brazillians in this FIFA U17 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 on Wednesday. Germany on Monday thrashed Colombia 4-0 in the pre- quarterfinals in New Delhi.
In their final group game in Margao, Brazil took the lead in just four minutes through Lincoln off an assist from Paulinho.
The second goal came 10 minutes before the break through a Brenner free-kick. Brazil lowered the intensity in the second half and did not score any goals. Against North Korea, the Brazillian forwards were a bit wayward and despite having several shots at the opposition goal, they could score just two.
With the quarterfinals against Germany looming if they win on Wednesday, Brazillian forwards can make amends in that aspect of the game and look to score as many goals as possible against Honduras.
Brazil and Honduras have earlier faced each other once at the U-17 world finals. The current Honduras coach Jose Valladares was on duty at the first meeting, at UAE 2013, when the Brazilians won 3-0.
The Teams (From) Brazil: Gabriel Brazao, Wesley, Vitao. Lucas Halter, Victor Bobsin, Weverson, Paulinho, Marcos Antonio, Lincoln, Alan, Lucao, Matheus Stockl, Rodrigo Guth, Luan Candido, Victor Yan, Rodrigo Nestor, Vitinho, Yuri Alberto, Brenner, Yuri Sena Honduras: Alex Rivera, Santiago Cabrera, Axel Gomez, Alexander Bahr, Cristian Moreira, Luis Palma, Jorge Flores, Gerson Chavez, Patrick Palacios, Alessandro Castro, Kenneth Martinez, Jordy Castro, Gustavo Vallecillo, Carlos Mejia, David Cardona, Asaf Cacho, Everson Lopez, Joshua Canales, Reynaldo Bodden, Emilio Campos, Carlos Banegas