Penalties decide 3 semifinalists at U-20
Print Edition
THE pressure of knockout soccer reared its head at the under-20 World Cup in New Zealand yesterday with three of the four quarterfinals decided by penalty shootouts.
Brazil, Mali and Serbia advanced to the semifinals courtesy of nerve-shredding shootouts, as heavyweights Portugal, Germany and the United States all crashed out.
Only Senegal sealed a result inside the 90 minutes following a 1-0 win over Uzbekistan in Wellington.
It was the second successive match Brazil had won on penalties as it held its nerve to win 3-1 after it was lucky to escape with a tense 0-0 result against Portugal after extra time.
Mali and strong favorite Germany had been locked at 1-1 after extra time before the African side prevailed 4-3 on spotkicks, while Serbia won 6-5 after its match against the US ended scoreless.
Brazil had beaten Uruguay 5-4 on penalties in the round of 16 and coped with the pressure better than the Portuguese, who saw Raphael Guzzo, Andre Silva and Nuno Santos all miss from the spot in Hamilton.
The normally ice-cool Germans also appeared to have suffered an attack of nerves and went out after Julian Brandt and Niklas Stark missed their spot kicks in Christchurch.
Germany was seemingly coasting to the semifinals after Brandt opened the scoring in the 38th as Frank Wormuth’s side dominated possession.
A missed 56th-minute penalty by Hany Muklhtar, however, proved to be a portent of what was to come as Mali goalkeeper Djigui Diarra’s diving stop gave confidence to his teammates with Souleymane Coulibaly equalizing two minutes later.
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