U-17 WC: Man City’s Jesus among the players to have wished Brazil for campaign

Kolkata, Oct 20 (IANS) Manchester City forward Gabriel Jesus is one of the few Brazilian senior team players who have wished the U-17 team luck for their campaign in the FIFA U-17 World Cup, goalkeeper Gabriel Brazao said ahead of their crunch quarter-final game on Sunday.

"Many of them sent some videos to us supporting us for this competition. Gabriel Jesus, George, Ederson... they were playing a match in South American qualification so they sent us videos and we know that they are supporting us," Brazao told reporters after the team's training session amidst heavy downpour on Friday.

Brazil kept their practice session open for media like they did in Kochi. Brazil senior team coach Adenor Leonardo Bacchi commonly known as Tite also met the team during their camp at home, a team official informed.

"He had encouraging words for them and watched the round of 16 match against Honduras. Brazil won 3-0 to reach the last-eight stage. In the group stages, the three-time champions were perfect against Spain, Niger and Korea DPR.

"Everybody expects good game between Brazil and Germany. We are preparing. Just after beating Honduras, we started thinking about this match. We have all of our technical staff with us and we are preparing hard. We expect to have a good game against them," Brazao said about the match at hand.

"They have a high level technique. Their games in the competition, we watched in the group stages and against Colombia and they are good. We have to be prepared as it will be difficult for us," the 17-year old, who conceded just one goal in four matches, said of Germany.

Asked if the team has the 7-1 defeat at the hands of the Germans in the 2014 senior World Cup in mind, he said: "If we think about the past, we prefer to think about Olymic games final when we won gold medal. The 2014 World Cup is in the past. We hve to make a great game tomorrow."

Neymar-led Brazil beat Germany in the Rio Olympics to avenge their defeat in 2016.

Brazao said his favourite goalkeeper is Fabio from Brazilian club Cruzeiro, a club he is also part of in the reserves team.

"He sometimes played for the national team but now plays for Cruzerio which is the same time as me."

Brazao also played as striker at the beginning but changed ends at the age of eight.

"I was born as a goalkeeper but I did not realise it at first. I started as a forward but after this the goalkeeper version called me and this is my life. At the age of eight I changed from striker to goalkeeper."