MARGAO
With the crowd right behind the Little Canaries from the start, the South American lads began their magic with a showcase of exemplary footwork, clinical passing and ball control while threading the ball through the field with finesse, panache and sublime skills from their citadel to the attacking third, leaving their African opposition Niger, debuting in the FIFA U-17 World Cup, with not much of a clue in the last Group D encounter at Nehru Stadium, Fatorda on Friday.
Either side of the opening quarter, Brazil exemplified sensibilities rather than overambition. Arising from difficult set pieces whereby most other teams would look to shoot the delivery into the rival box, Brazil found prudent to delve into short passes from a free kick to a corner.
A marvel was a neat parallel run with medio Marcus Antonio on the right flank sending a delightful cross to Paulinho in the centre of the attacking third whose ensuing strike was gloved away to a corner by the Nigerien custodian, Khaled Lawali.
Niger with their physicality and indomitable spirit continued to restrain the marauding attackers oft and again after the early setback. But their resistance was subdued a few minutes later. Forward Brenner doubled the score-line for Brazil on the 34th minute, with a free-kick of surgical precision that breached the wall between the third and fourth member of the Niger back-wall.
Thereon, there were a few sporadic moves upfront from Niger trying to match the beauty of the opposition's game with some spectacular football of their own. Towards the end of the first half, Niger had the odd chance of their own but could not make it count.
On one such rare foray by Yacine Wa Massamba from the edge of the box on the right flank sent a beautiful release ball to Kairou Amoustapha who did not latch on the golden opportunity.
Post resumption, the indefatigable Niger kept pressing hard in their spirited efforts to claw their way back into the contest making their fancied rivals break into a sweat. Brazil unable to keep up with their physically superior opposition with their pace, thawed down with visible cracks in their efforts moving upfront which became increasingly rarer.
A little while from an hour into the match, Brazilian goal-keeper, Gabriel Brazao effected a top draw save. Nigerien substitute Ibrahim Boubacar wheeled around for a back pass to Yacine, latter whose rasping angle strike on target was palmed away to a corner by the alert Brazil goalkeeper In the last quarter, Niger had two other shies
on goal.
