U-17 World Cup: Colombia to face Germany in Round-of-16 match (Preview)

Group A runners-up Colombia are all set to take on their Group C counterparts Germany in a round-of-16 match of the FIFA Under-17 World Cup at the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium here on Monday.

Both teams qualified for the knock-out stage with two wins and one loss. They also shared the same number of goals in the group stages. But in the upcoming game, both teams would like to give that extra which could helped them to advance in the prestigious meet.

Colombia lost to Ghana but later clinched consecutive victories against India and the US to seal a berth in the knock-out stages.

Germany, on the other hand, defeated Costa Rica and Guinea while losing to Iran in the Group stages to qualify for the second round.

For Colombia, all eyes will again be on promising star Juan Penaloza, who contributed handsomely in the group games. Apart from the brace against India, Penaloza also played a critical role in the match against the United States, scoring an important goal and an assist in their must-win tie.

Colombia's coach Orlando Restrepo admitted that the change in the strategy helped them to overpower the United States and they would like to do the same when they face European powerhouse Germany.

"We have been following a competitive strategy. In case of United States, we applied different strategy and that came out good for us and same we will be going to do in the second match," Restrepo told reporters ahead of the match against Germany.

"We played with different strategy. For example, we played with the United States 3-4-1 and now in the upcoming match we have some different strategy which can be more effective. Apart from this, our concentration is on keeping the ball possession," he added.

Germany, who entered the knockout stage defeating Guinea 3-1 and yet to display their game, would be aiming to correct their mistakes. And with no margin for error in the knockout phase, Die Mannschaft will be hoping to make every opportunity count in the upcoming game.

Their coach Christian Wueck also asserted that his wards were upbeat and will give a close fight to Colombia.

"Colombia played a very good World Championship, they are in a very close (tight) group against teams India, the US and Ghana. We think we will have a very close game tomorrow," Wueck told reporters during the pre-match press conference here.

"Colombia has very fast player, very strong players," the 44-year-old added.

--IANS

gau/dg