French team reaches semi-finals in U-17 World Cup

The French team qualified this Monday to play one of the semi-finals of the U-17 World Cup in Brazil, defeating Spain, another favorite, by 6-1 in Goiania.

In the first European quarter-final match of the tournament since Germany-England in 2011, France confirmed their candidacy by overwhelming Spain, who went from more to less and ended up surrendering to the French superiority.

Spain took the lead in the 9th minute, when Moriba Ilaix won a divided ball on the edge of the area and touched it to assist Germán Valera, who scored with a well-placed shot to make it 1-0.

The goal, the second that France conceded in the entire tournament, woke up the 'Bleus', who began to approach the Spanish area.

In the 21st minute, a corner served by Adill Aouiche was headed in by Nianzou Kouassi to equalize the score.

France continued searching for the goal and found it again in the 36th minute, when Isaac Lihadji sprinted to the goal line and crossed it low into the area, where Nathanael Mbuku took advantage of the indecision of the goalkeeper and the Spanish defense to easily score the 2-1.

In the first minute of the second half, Mbuku and Lihadji swapped roles and a play down the left side by the former was finished by Lihadji, once again taking advantage of the passiveness of the Spanish defense, to make it 3-1.

The goal sunk Spain, who gave up and ended up completely at the mercy of the French, who used their physical superiority in the area to increase the lead.

Timothee Pembele, from another corner kick, scored the fourth French goal in the 54th minute, and five minutes later, Georginio Rutter headed in another corner to make it 5-1.

In stoppage time, Adil Aouchiche sealed the French rout on a counterattack, being the best team in the tournament so far.

With the victory, France reaches the semi-finals of the tournament for the second time in their history, where they will face the winner of Brazil-Italy on Thursday.

The only time France reached the U-17 semi-finals was in the 2001 World Cup in Trinidad and Tobago, which they ended up winning.