We want to score more goals: Brazil coach

Title favourites Brazil had an easy passage to the Round of 16 of the FIFA U-17 World Cup with three wins on the trot but they were not among highest scoring sides and their coach Carlos Amadeu today said they would look for more goals in the knock-out stage.

Brazil beat Spain (2-1), North Korea (2-0) and Niger (2- 0) without much problems to top Group B but an attacking side with strikers of the calibre of Lincoln and Paulinho were expected to score more than six goals that they have so far.

"I am happy about the victories. I am happy we did not concede more goals during the competition. We are winning matches. Now we are in a more deeper stage of the competition. If you ask me, I would say we want to score more goals, it would be beneficial to the team," Amadeu said at the pre-match press conference.
 

He said Brazil would not take unfancied Honduras lightly and the defence, which has conceded just one goal so far, will need to continue the good job.

"I was watching the (Central American) qualification matches where Honduras scored many goals. Also here in this World Cup, we are watching them. They are scoring against all the opponents like Japan and France. They have really strong offensive line. They have very strong players. So we have to be focussed on our defence," the Brazil coach said.

Talking about the level of focus and margin of error in the knock-outs, he said, "We talked a lot about this. We need to really concentrate on the next match. At first stage, we could draw, we could win, we could enter the next level. Now we must win to keep going in this competition. So we have to be more focussed for the next match.

"We are totally satisfied to be back here in Kochi. We had more time to recover from the last match to this one against Honduras. But we are looking forward to play again because we are resting for too many days."

Asked how pleased he was with the performances of his three strikers -- Lincoln, Paulinho and Brenner -- Amadeu said, "The projections for their future are good. If they keep their mind, their focus, they will have very great future."

Attacking midfielder Alan did not play in Brazil's final group game against Niger, after starting in the first two matches, as a precautionary measure as he has already received a yellow card.

Asked about Alan coming back, Amadeu said, "We will keep this team with Alan coming back. This is our style. This is how we work. we won three matches because we give confidence to them and this is what we think. If we keep the same team, they will be more confident for the next match."

Honduras coach Jose Valladares said his side will play for a win and will not be intimidated by their formidable rivals.

"We will definitely play to win. I can assure you that we will give them a tough fight and we will surprise them. We did commit some errors during our game against France and Japan. We are trying to improve our game," he said.

Valladares said that he has a fair idea of how Brazil play and has a strategy to tackle them.

"Our ultimate strategy is to win the game. There were variations in the games we played during the group stage. It was based on the circumstances. But I believe that tomorrow's game is almost similar to the game we played against France. We have a fair idea about the Brazilian team and we are going to stick to our strategy accordingly and we are going to tackle them," said the coach.

"We will try to find loopholes in their strategy. We have got a good defence. We will try to break their defence. We have trained well till now because we see Brazil as a strong team. Their strategy is a kind of a technical strategy. We are trained well to tackle them.