JAKARTA (AP) – Argentina and defending champion Brazil will meet in the quarterfinals of the Under-17 World Cup in Indonesia after navigating a second round that saw the England and United States (US) eliminated from the tournament.
Uzbekistan upset 2017 champion England 2-1 on Wednesday, a day after Germany advanced 3-2 over the US.
Germany will open the quarterfinal stage against Spain today before Argentina takes on Brazil. The quarterfinals tomorrow will feature France against Uzbekistan and Mali against Morocco.
Brazil’s title defence got off to a shaky start in a 3-2 loss to Iran, but a 9-0 rout of New Caledonia and a 2-1 win over England earned the 2019 champions a spot in the round of 16.
Brazil then beat Ecuador 3-1 with two goals coming from Estevao and one from Luighi.
Argentina thrashed Venezuela 5-0, a result that was not in doubt after three goals in the first 32 minutes. After an own-goal, Santiago Lopez and Claudio Echeverri found the target before a late double from Agustin Ruberto, who leads the tournament’s scoring rankings with five goals.
England’s demise followed a stunning freekick from Lazizbek Mirzaev after Joel Ndala had cancelled out an early goal from Amirbek Saidov.
Uzbekistan will be growing in confidence ahead of a knockout game against France, which squeezed past Senegal 5-3 in a shootout after the game ended 0-0.
A late goal from Bilal Yalcinkaya gave Germany a 3-2 win over the US. Spain advanced 2-1 over Japan.
US coach Gonzalo Segares looked for the positives after the narrow loss which followed group stage wins over Burkina Faso and South Korea.
“I’m very proud,” he said. “A lot of people didn’t think we were going to be even close on the scoreboard (against Germany), and we showed that we can play one-on-one with anyone.”
