WARSAW: The FIFA U-20 World Cup in Poland started with the fastest goal in the history of the competition as Senegal scored against Tahiti after 9.6 seconds of action in Lublin.

Friday promises more excitement across the host country as Tychy and Bielsko-Biala join the party with Group D openers. The matches ahead:

#5 Honduras v. New Zealand, 18:00 (Lublin)

#6 Uruguay v. Norway, 20:30 (Lodz)

#7 Qatar v. Nigeria, 18:00 (Tychy)

#8 Ukraine v. USA, 20:30 (Bielsko-Biala)

The football stars of tomorrow are facing up over the next month in Poland.

The tournament was the brainchild of the world federation under the presidency of Brazilian Joao Havelange and has been staged every two years since the inaugural event in Tunisia in 1977. Until 2005 it was known as the FIFA World Youth Championship before the establishment of the under-17 championship.

Ten different countries have won the 21 tournaments. Argentina are the most successful with six titles, followed by Brazil with five titles. Portugal and Serbia have each won twice – the latter once as the former Yugoslavia). Single success has been attained by Ghana, Germany, Spain, France, England and Russia (as the USSR).

This year’s event is the first FIFA tournament staged in Poland whose previous major events included the cohosting of Euro 2012 with Ukraine and the 2017 UEFA European Under-21 Championship.

England will not be defending the crown they won in South Korea because they lost 3–0 to Norway in a play-off for the final qualifying place at the 2018 UEFA European Under-19 Championship in Finland. England thus became the sixth consecutive champions to failed to qualify for the next finals.

The will be staged in Lodz.

The groups are:

Group A: Colombia, Tahiti, Poland, Senegal.

Group B: Ecuador, Italy, Japan, Mexico.

Group C: Honduras, New Zealand, Norway, Uruguay.

Group D: Nigeria, Qatar, Ukraine, United States. Group E: France, Mali, Panama, Saudi Arabia. Group F: Argentina, Portugal, South Africa, South Korea.

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