The day had seen the Group A and B teams playing their second match of the Group Stage at New Delhi and Navi Mumbai respectively. Yesterday we saw England thrashing Chile beating them 4-0 at Yubabharati Stadium in Kolkata. Iraq vs Mexico match was drawn with a scoreline of 1-1 in the same venue in the Group F match. On the other hand, France had beaten New Caledonia with a 7-1 scoreline and Japan was emerged victorious against Honduras with a 6-1 margin in Guwahati in the Group E matches.
Ghana was beaten by USA with a solo goal from Ayo Akinola at 75th minute in the first match of Group A in New Delhi. Chris Goslin of USA was named in the referee’s notebook at 6th minute of the match.Kudus Mohammed, Najeeb Yakubu and Richard Ganso of Ghana were the players to be in the booking list. The match was exciting throughout. Ghana played well in the match but USA got the all important goal in the match. USA was the first team to qualify for the knockout stage in this Under 17 World Cup.
Mali had beaten Turkey with a 3-0 margin. Djemoussa Traore, Lassana N’Diaye and Fode Konate were in the score sheet. This was a great victory for Mali and they will now surely hope to be in the knockout stage of the Under 17 World Cup. It was the first match of the day of Group B occurring in Navi Mumbai.
In the second match of Group A India had tasted a close defeat against Colombia with a scoreline of 2-1 in New Delhi. The match was very close in the first half as it was ended with 0-0 scoreline. Abhijeet Sarkar missed an open Goal and one shot had came back off the post for India. In the second half Penaloza had given Colombia the all important first goal. But Jeakson’s header gave India the chance to come back in the match. Jeakson’s goal was the first Goal of India in a FIFA tournament. But the happiness of India soon fade away as Penaloza again scored for Colombia. With this defeat India’s chance to qualify from the group stage had gone in a very much poor position.
In the second match of Group B Paraguay had beaten New Zealand with a 4-2 margin in Navi Mumbai. Alan Rodriguez Armoa had opened the score sheet for Colombia. But soon New Zealand took a lead of 2-1 with two own goals coming from Alexis Duarte Pereira. The first half had ended with New Zealand leading by one goal. Anibal Vega’s double strike gave Paraguay the lead again in the match and at the dying moment of the match Blas Armoa Nunez’s goal sealed the game for Paraguay. With this win Paraguay will be confident to go to the knockout stage of the tournament from Group B.
Editor’s view-
The competition is looking quite intense and the crowds are slowly growing in number, along with the expectations of the fans. Hopefully, once the group stages are done, the madness can up a level and reach the game is given a huge boost in India.
