We just felt we need to be more patient to finalise the opportunities we had- Restrepo

The Colombia coach was relieved after a win against the hosts in front of a partizan crowd.

Colombia U-17 kept their hopes alive to qualify for the next round as they beat India U-17 1-2 in the FIFA U-17 World Cup 2017 Group A  match played at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Delhi on Monday evening. A win against the USA in the next match with better goal difference than Ghana will confirm their place in the next round.

Colombian coach Orlando Restrepo started the post-match media interaction by congratulating India and their coach for a brave performance “Congratulation to India and their coach for excellent work in the entire match," he said. He further continued “We just felt that we need to be more patient to finalise the opportunities that we had.

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When asked to give his thoughts on Colombia’s goalscorer Juan Penaloza and India’s performance in the match Restrepo said. “He had a great game, especially for a fact that he started as a right-back in the last match and today as a right winger as we wanted to use his pace and he did exactly what we wanted to. The Last 15 minutes were stressful, especially when India scored but we stuck with the plan and capitalised on it. But, it was really intense. We were struggling in the beginning but we came out with the victory.”

The South American coach was impressed with the positive attitude of the Indian U-17 side and especially the two centre-backs Anwar Ali and Namit Deshpande. “I was really impressed with India’s two centre-backs. They were really tough and defended excellently in the entire match. Actually, the Indian team played well and gave us a good fight.” he signed off.