Confident Brazil take on Honduras

Kochi, October 17

Having won all their three group matches with ease, South American giants Brazil will start clear favourites when they take on Honduras in a pre-quarterfinal match of the FIFA U-17 World Cup here tomorrow.

Their strike duo of Lincoln and Paulinho has been deadly up front, ensuring that Brazil did not feel the absence of Vinicius Junior. The duo has 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 U-17 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 tomorrow. Germany yesterday thrashed Colombia 4-0 in the pre-quarterfinals in New Delhi.

With the quarterfinals against Germany looming if they win tomorrow, 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 Cup final. The current Honduras coach Jose Valladares was on duty at the first meeting, at UAE 2013, when the Brazilians won 3-0. 

If Honduras are to counter the Brazilian threat, they need to take the chances which come their way and cut out the defensive errors that cost them against Japan and France in the group phase. — PTI