Lucky to get the win: Amadeu

Having registered a 2-0 win over Mali in the 3/4th place play-off at the FIFA U-17 World Cup Brazilian head coach Carlos Amadeu admitted that his side was lucky to have come out as winners in Kolkata on Saturday.

“We were just lucky. Very, very lucky,” Amadeu said at the post match media briefing. “We had our worst game of the World Cup, worst match in two and half years. We were lucky it went our way. We know we could have done much better today.”

The Malian head coach Jonas Komla too agreed that his side suffered because the boys failed to make the most of the opportunities they created. “We had a very nice match and had a lot of opportunities but unfortunately we could not score any,” he said. “The opposition took (their chances) and that’s the difference.

Having received a 1-3 drubbing at the hands of England in the semifinal on Wednesday, the Brazilian coach Amadeu admitted that it was difficult to keep the boys motivated for this tie. “When you lose a semifinal you still want to live. We always want to win when we cannot win anymore we want to live. This is why it’s so difficult to motivate players (for the Mali tie). We had to work hard to keep them motivated in the game.”

In the absence of their star player Vinicius Jr, the likes of Alan Souza and Lincoln stepped up to take Brazil to the semifinal. Though their head coach couldn’t comment on how many from this side could break it to the senior side or make it to different European clubs, he expected the boys stay true to their commitment.

“I don’t have a crystal ball (to predict). They have to fight, stay really committed to sport, training preparation and so on. I think most of them will have a chance. We have examples of players who do not have a World Cup and play senior team. Many won the World Cup, but still nobody knows about them. It will depend on how these guys evolve,” he explained.