Kochi, Oct 17 (UNI) In the run of annexing the prestigious title of FIFA U-17 World Cup for the youth footballers across the world, title aspirant Brazil will take on underdogs Honduras in the pre quarter finals, to be held at the Jawaharlal Nehru International stadium here tomorrow. In the absence of football giants Argentina and Nigeria, favourite Brazil chances are galore and it had already proved it that it was a hard nut to crack in the league matches by notching up deserving wins against their rivals. Brazil found a berth in the last 16 with empathetic wins over fighting Spain (3-1), Niger (2-0) and Korea DPR (2-0) and emerged as the leader of the group +D+ with nine points. Though the title aspirant had some teething problems in the first match against Spain, it was found settled after solving those issues in the subsequent games against Niger and Korea DPR, as the former crushed the resistance of both the latter teams with ease. Of course, their trump card would be the sixteen year old Lincoln Henrique Oliveira Dos Santos, who already credited three goals into account from his debut in the U-17 World Cup from three matches so far. The skill of splitting the defence of rivals and driving the ball to the rival goal was extra ordinary. He would be always a nightmare to their rivals in the coming matches as well. The other scoring machine, José Paulo Bezerra Maciel Júnior, commonly known as Paulinho, who scored two goals, would also be a threat to their opponents in the coming matches. The tactics and ability to enter the rival goal area, piercing the rival defence through both flanks and feeding the ball to his colleagues with accuracy. If both Paulinho and Lincoln combined well, it would be very difficult to their rivals to brindle the two warhorses from firing to the rival net without mercy.

Brazil had played about 75 matches and it succeeded to pull out 47 victories against opponents, by pumping 166 goals in the history of the FIFA U-17. A Brazilian netted the first goal in U-17 World Cup history. On the opening day of the inaugural edition in 1985, Bismarck found the target after just nine minutes against Qatar. Holding rank number on the FIFA U-17, the former champions during their 15 time participation, kissed the coveted cup thrice in 1997, 1999 and 2003, while satisfied with second place in 2015. On the other hand, Honduras, first appeared in the world cup in 2007. However, brazil could not prove themselves and did not yield any notable achievements so far. They huffed and puffed to the last four with just three points from three matches. Honduras find the place in the last 16 was not with much good track record, as they could be able to win a match against New Caledonia (5-0), while it suffered humiliating defeats at the hands of Japan 1-6 and France 1-5. Despite only making debut in 2007, Honduras was already appearing in their fifth U-17 World Cup, having only missed out on the 2011 edition during that period. Los Catrachos put in their best showing at the 2013 edition, when Brazil was eliminated in the quarter-finals by Sweden, the last major achievement so far. Honduras have won only two of their 14 matches contested in the U-17 World Cup, both in 2013 against Asian teams. The first was a 2-1 win over United Arab Emirates in the group round, followed by a 1-0 victory over Uzbekistan in the Round of 16.

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