England treat Kolkata to dream World Cup final

Kolkata: England produced a memorable come- from-behind performance to crush Spain 5-2 and win the FIFA U-17 World Cup final here on Saturday. England have now done a FIFA double in the same year, having won the FIFA U-20 World Cup in June.

It was a sweet revenge as England lost to La Rojas juniors in the U-17 European Championship, earlier this year. It was a night to remember at the Salt Lake Stadium as England came back from a two-goal deficit to pump in five in- front of a capacity crowd of 66,000 plus.

This was after Spain went ahead 2-0 at the stroke of half an hour with striker Sergio Gomez bang on target. If the first was a back-heel capitalising on a defensive lapse, the second was an inch perfect left-footed angular volley.

However, England's goal-machine Rhian Brewster's powerful header in the 44th minute saw his team go into half-time down by two goals to one. Brewster won the 'Golden Boot' with 8 goals to his credit. However, things changed differently in the second half as Morgan Gibbs White tapped home an inch-perfect cross to make it 2-2.

Phil Foden then found the target in the 69th minute and the winners literally sealed the issue in the 84th minute with the fourth goal scored by Marc Guehi. The Young Lions were still not over as Fodden rounded off the tally in the 88th minute. Earlier in the day, Brazil coach Carlos Amadeu said that they experienced their worst game in two and half years, after an unconvincing 2-0 win over Mali to finish third in the FIFA U-17 World Cup here. Brazil went into the lead with a weak attempt from Alan in the 55th minute as the ball dribbled through the hands of Mali's goalkeeper Yousouf Koita, while Yuri Alberto drove home Paulinho's assist to seal the win in the 88th minute.

"We had our worst game of the World Cup, the worst match in two and half years of preparation. But we were lucky it went our way," Amadeu said at the post-match news conference at the Salt Lake Stadium. "We tried to show you Brazilian football but today we could not. In all the competitions, we have showed what Brazilian football is all about."

This was the three-time champions' best showing in the tournament since 2005 when they had finished runners-up. Amadeu said it was very tough to motivate his players for a third place game as they were very heartbroken after losing the semifinal to England three days ago.