U17 World Cup Brazil coach Carlos Amadeu: Time to celebrate tonight, think about England tomorrow

Ritabrata Banerjee

U17 World Cup Brazil coach Carlos Amadeu: Time to celebrate tonight, think about England tomorrow image
Second half goals from Weverson and Paulinho ensured that Brazil reached the semifinals of the 2017 FIFA U17 World Cup over Germany in Kolkata on Sunday.

After going a goal down in the first half, thanks to a successful penalty converted by the German skipper Jann-Fiete Arp, the boys in yellow and blue were behind but head coach Carlos Amadeu altered his tactics for the second half which reaped dividends.

"The German coach had a very good strategy. He blocked our midfielders and he neutralised our system. This caused us some problems. Our left-back (Luan Candido) was vulnerable. In the second half, we subbed him off. Our midfielders went to the wings and fullbacks went in a more central role."

"They got confused. We think we dominated in the second half. What I did was switch the players' position which worked," Amadeu revealed his successful tactics.

The Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata recorded its highest turnout of the tournament with 66,614 fans thronging the arena which is incidentally going to host the final next weekend. Amadeu had words of praise for the atmosphere, which cheered every move that Brazil made.

"First of all congratulations to all of you for organising this tournament brilliantly. It is a good facility in the stadium. It was special to play here. Also, the way the fans were supporting, they were so polite. We are happy to perform well in front of such a crowd."

The South American champions have a date with England in the semifinal battle in Guwahati on Wednesday but Amadeu did not want to think too far ahead.

"Today we got a difficult win. Today is the day to enjoy, to celebrate. Tomorrow we'll think about England," he quirked.

As his counterpart Christian Wück criticised the refereeing on the night, Amadeu chose not to echo the European's sentiment. "I think that specialised people evaluate the referees. My job is to guide my players to perform on field. This Brazil team won thr fair play award at the U15 and U17 South American Championships."

The former EC Vitoria man also praised the way both goals from his camps were scored. "Weverson had lost his position and it was a fantastic goal after coming as a substitute. Paulinho's goal was beautiful too. He is used to scoring such goals. In the South American Championship against Venezuela he had scored a similar goal," he concluded. 
 

Ritabrata Banerjee