Dominant Spain beat Iran to reach U17 semis

It rained goals on a hot Sunday in Kochi as Spain dominated Iran from start to finish to reach the semi-finals of the Under-17 World Cup. Apart from a small scare in the 70th minute when Iran pulled one back after being 3-0 down, Spain were at their aggressive best, dictating most of game with their rivals relying chiefly on counter-attacks. Spain, who have now reached the last four in the last four U-17 tournaments, will now face Mali, the only African team remaining in the tournament, on Wednesday.

Abel Ruiz and Ferran Torres were at the centre of Spain's domination with the former scoring his fourth goal of the tournament to take him just one short of the tournament's top-scorers: Amini Gouiri of France and Lassana N'Diaye of Mali. Ruiz gave Spain the lead in the 13th minute after converting his rebound from the centre of the box.

Sergio Gomez doubled the lead with one of the goals of the tournament with a powerful drive from 30 yards to make it 2-0 in the 66th minute. Torres, after having a fine game overall, made it three seven minutes later to virtually seal the game for Spain. Iran did pull one back with 20 minutes to go with Saeid Karimi, while also having a shot saved in the 83rth minute, but they didn't do enough and were second-best throughout the game.

In the first half Spain had more than 80% of the ball, with Iran having just one attempt on goal. Spain had a couple of chances to double Ruiz's opener, but the chances from César Gelabert and Torres weren't converted. Iran were lucky to end the half only a goal down.

Iran started the second half stronger with two attempts early on, including their first shot on target seven minutes from the break. However, they couldn't make this momentum count as Gomez struck on the 60th minute with a stunning effort from long range. Moments later, Torres, who ran the Iranian defence ragged, got the third after finishing a fine move from point-blank range. Mohamed Moukhliss from the right gave an inch-perfect pass for Torres to slide home and get his first goal of the tournament.

Iran got one back and came close to another, but their late resurgence wasn't enough as Spain, who almost got two goals late themselves, held on to reach yet another U-17 semi-final.