FIFA U-17 World Cup: Germany, Iran eye knockout berth

Germany and Iran will look to book a berth in the knock-out stage when they clash in a Group C league match of the FIFA U-17 World Cup at Nehru Stadium, Fatorda at Goa.

Both the teams have won their respective opening matches with Germany getting past Costa Rica 2-1 and Iran beating Guinea 3-1 last Saturday.

During their opening match, Germany had a shaky start before taking a lead midway in the first half through their star striker Jann-Fiete Arp. Costa Rica fought back to restore parity in the second half through Andres Gomez.

With the match heading towards a draw, it needed substitute Noah Awuku's effort to score the winner in the dying minute to give Germany full points.

Iran, on the other hand, soaked all the pressure from Guinea in the first half and then came strongly in the second half and capitalised on the chances that came their way to score a comfortable 3-1 win.

Come tomorrow, Nicolas Kuehn, Noah Awuku and John Yeboah will lead the attack from the middle for Germany and Jann- Fiete Arp, who has been the leading scorer at home, will look to continue his run against Iran, who has a compact defence.

"We did not get the start we wanted. The boys were nervy at first against Costa Rica but settled down and went on to beat Costa Rica," German coach Christian Wucku said.

"They have the potential to play better and I am looking forward to see them play to their potential against Iran who play a tactical game and have a strong defence," said Wucku. Iran, who play a defensive game initially and slowly open up the game in the second half, will be looking to repeat the same against Germany who look strong in their attack.

Iran's coach Abbas Chamanian said: "Now that we have won against Guinea we need to counter the German as they are well organised in their attack and defence.

"We have worked out a strategy to counter and hopefully we'll succeed and win tomorrow which will see us into the round of 16," said Chamanian.

Teams (From):

Germany: Luca Plogmann, Alexander Nitzl, Pascal Hackethal, Dominik Becker, Jan Boller, Noah Awuku, Shaverdi Catin, Eric Majetshcek, Jan-Fiete ARP, Elias Abouchabaka, Nicolas Kuehn, Luis Klatte, Dennis Jastrzembski, Yannik Keitel, Kilian Ludewig, Lars Mai, maurice Malone, John Yeboah, Jessic Ngankam, Yann Bisseck and Marian Prins.

Iran: Gholam Zadeh Gomari, Satavi, Jalali, Esmaeil Zadeh Shahkola, Nasiri, Shariati Khameneh, Hosseinzadeh Tazehgheshlagh, Sharifi, Sayyad Manesh Shiadeh, Ghobeishavi, Delfi, Ashayer, Janipour, Davaran, Kooshki, Namdari DEhghadi, Ghaderi, Karimi Lishter, Sardari Amidabadi, Khaghani and Khoda Moradi.        

Match starts at 8 pm.