Referee made the difference in the match: German coach Wueck

Germany coach Christian Wueck on Sunday came down heavily on US referee Jair Marrufo saying he made the difference in the 1-2 result against Brazil which knocked them out of the FIFA U-17 World Cup in a quarterfinal tie here.

"Did you watch the game? Did you look at the eyes of Jan Boller? It was a clear foul on him and they were not penalised. We have no problems in losing. But not in this way. The difference was the referee in this match," an angry Wueck said at the post-match press conference.

Boller was brought on in the 76th minute replacing Sahverdi Cetin and a minute later Paulinho scored a peach of a winner from 25 yards after Weverson negated Jann-Fiete Arp's first half strike.

The coach was talking about an incident just before Paulinho scored the goal when Boller was hit on his face by a Brazilian player.

Asked if he rued Germany's failure to conjure up a second goal after the break, Wueck said: "We were better in the first half. Brazil were better in the second. I have to say we should have scored in the second half and lost because of that."

Asked about the German coach's reaction, Brazil counterpart Carlos Amadeu said it was not on his part to comment on the referee. We have won fairplay award in U-15 and U-17 championships. If someone has done something like this, we will talk to the player. We have only one yellow card going into this match."

Brazil will now take on England in the first semi-final on Wednesday.

--IANS

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