ALAN VACCARO / AIPS* in ABU DHABI: Russia coach Dmitry Khomukha thought that the second-half expulsion against Brazil of Dmitriy Barinov “changed the game” at the FIFA U-17 World Cup UAE 2013.

The European champions were holding the favourites goalless when Saudi referee Khalil Al Ghamdi showed midfielder Barinov a straight red card after felling Auro. Three minutes later Brazil opened the scoring on the way to a 3-1 win and a place in the quarter-finals.

Khomukha said: “Before the red card we were playing equally. We cannot say for sure if it was correct because I was sure that our player touched the ball first. But as soon as they got the advantage they gained in strength a lot and scored.”

Brazil’s coach, Alexandre Gallo thought the red card was “fair” and that, even without it, his team would have won. He said: “We had already been dominating the game since the start of second half. We deserved this win and could have scored many more goals.”

Gallo said that Brazil would still be keeping their “feet on the ground” ahead of the quarter-final against Mexico, adding: “It will be a difficult challenge and we have to respect them.”

##

* AIPS, the international sports journalists association, is running a Young Reporters course at the FIFA U-17 World Cup UAE 2013 with the support of the local organising committee and FIFA

# # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # #