Both teams won their respective matches and qualified for the quarterfinals of the U-17 World Cup. Ecuador and Japan say goodbye
The Brazilian and Spanish national teams continue to make important strides in the FIFA U-17 World Cup Indonesia 2023. Both teams reached the quarterfinals after leaving Ecuador and Japan, respectively, on the road.
Brazil, the current world champion in the category, faces one of the toughest opponents in the tournament. Throughout the game, the Ecuadorians put the Brazilians in an uncomfortable position on the pitch, until Estêvão Willian appeared to make the score 1-0.
Despite this score, the Brazilian team continued to not show their best football, and in stoppage time, Michael Bermúdez tied the score at 1-1. The game continued its course, and after some fears on the part of Canarinha, the tiebreaker came in the 71′ of the game through Estêvão again. One of the revelations of the tournament, followed by FC Barcelona, appeared on the scoreboard again to give his team a break and start the lead towards victory.
A few minutes before the end of the game, Luighi Hanri managed to beat Ecuadorian goalkeeper Cristhian Loor to put the final score at 3-1. With this result, Brazil maintains their dream of getting their fifth star and will have to wait for a rival to appear in the match between Argentina and Venezuela.
Spain also suffered and won
The Spanish team is another favorite to win the World Cup, but before they reach their place, they have to face an important team like Japan in a great tournament.
The Spaniards started to win very early, in the 8th minute, thanks to a goal from Quim Junyent. The midfielder was able to beat Wataru Goto, and Spain is eager to advance to the quarterfinals.
However, despite this severe psychological blow, the Japanese did not give up and sent all their artillery on the offensive. Spain, with all the starters after the confrontation against Uzbekistan, suffered a lot and was not on the field.
One of these Japanese attacks paid off, and in the 40′, Gaku Nawata tied the game at 1-1. Spain held on to the ropes until Marc Giui popped up in the 74th minute to make it 2-1 after a well-filtered pass from Junyent.
With this result, the hope of the Spanish team is still alive to be crowned in the only tournament they have yet to avoid, and now they will wait for the winner between Germany and the United States.
