England seal maiden spot in final of U-17 World Cup
Kolkata: A brilliant hat-trick by Rhian Brewster helped England sail into the FIFA U-17 World Cup final as the Three Lions edged out Brazil 3-1 in the semifinal here at the Salt Lake Stadium, Wednesday.
Brewster, who had scored a hat-trick in his side’s 4-1 decimation of the USA in the quarterfinals Saturday, scored in the 10th, 39th and 77th minutes in front of a shell-shocked 63,881 Brazil-supporting partisan crowd here.
The triple strike took Brewster to seven goals, the highest in the tournament, and the Liverpool youth team player has once again shown that he is the best predator on show in the mega-event. This is the first time that a player has scored two hat-tricks in the same edition of the U-17 World Cip.
Brazil started the match on a positive note having a better ball possession than England. However, the first chance of the match came for England in the sixth minute when Calum Hudson-Odoi passed from the left flank only to find Philip Foden who shot it wide of the post.
A couple of minutes later Brazil squandered a wonderful chance to take a lead when midfielder Marcus Amtonio shot straight into the hands of the England goalie Curtis Anderson.
Before Brazil could come up with better attacking tactics, England took the lead in the 10th minute when Brewster scored off a rebound after Hudson-Odoi’s cross from the left.
Brazil, however, hit back strongly. In the 21st minute, after a neat exchange of passes with Antonio, Paulinho drilled a low shot which England keeper could not stopp. The rebound went to England centre-back and captain Joel Latibeaudiere, whose heavy touch gave a lurking Wesley to blast into the open net in a jiffy.
However the Lions continued putting pressure on the Brazilian defence and they were soon rewarded for their efforts when Brewster capitalised on a defensive error and scored.
After the break, Brazil came back strongly with a series of attacks in the opposition half. First it was in the 58th minute when a Brenner scorcher from distance was brilliantly saved Anderson. Five minutes later substitute Yuri Alberto’s solo run was successfully blocked by the English defenders.
However, in the 77th minute, it was all over for the South Americans. Brewster, lurking in front of the opposition goal, got a pass from substitute Emile Smith Rowe and made no mistake in tapping in past a hapless Brazilian goalie.
