We are pretty sure by now that the Brazilian fans who tuned in to SporTV to watch the match between their U-17 football team and the Germany youth team on Sunday October 22, were in for a major surprise.
The Brazil Under-17 football team, powered by stunning strikes from Weverson and Paulinho, recorded a memorable comeback win against the Germans in the quarterfinals of the FIFA U-17 World Cup 2017 in Kolkata. Full match report.
The match will remain special in the history of Indian football as well, as the Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan or the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata was a full-house and the sea of yellow supporters, flaunting Brazil flags, stole the attention.
Salt Lake Stadium Kolkata to Maracana Stadium Brazil distance: 15,069 km
For the whole 90 minutes of the match and even the build-up that started two hours prior, we had just one question in mind: How can you just replicate a carbon copy of the Maracana Stadium?
As many as 66,613 supporters turned up for the match. Except for less than 100 German supporters, the remainder were fans of Brazil. Even Argentina fans had their backing for the young Selecao team.
"First of all, congratulation to you for the organisation and this is a beautiful stadium," Brazil U-17 football team coach Carlos Amadeu spoke in the post-match presser.
"The dressing room, the pitch everything. The stadium was packed and the way the fans supported the game, they were so polite.
"They supported Brazil but also appreciated Germany when they were playing well. So you were a great crowd," he added.
German fans were outnumbered, but they never backed down
Let's not take anything away from the German fans who turned up in full force as well to support their team. Highly-rated forward and skipper of the team Jann-Fiete Arp gave his side the lead in the 21st minute of the match via a penalty, and the roar from the fans reverberated across the packed stadium.
Arpita Lahiri Mukherjee, a fan of the Germany football team, spoke to the International Business Times, India, and mentioned that it was a pleasure for her watching the match with 5-6 members of the German consulate in Kolkata.
It was all going smooth until the 70th minute of the match, and then the twin strikes from the Brazil team changed it all. Nevertheless, the cheers to not lose hope, continued from the German fans until the end of it all.
Even until the last minute, Die Mannschaft created chances and won a flurry of corners in the injury time. Despite trying their best, they couldn't get the job done. Brazil, who just received the sudden dose of motivation and the ridiculous backing of the crowd, were playing on a different level altogether.
Even banters made an appearance at the international match
Arpita also mentioned that she unfortunately remained witness to one such occasion where Brazilian fans in the stadium shouted "go straight back to Munich, flight is free! get lost" chants at the German fans after the match.
Although it looked a bit disappointing, let's not forget that banters like these are not too bad for football, after all. Even Maracana has seen several instances like these over the decades.
The Salt Lake Stadium, for one, however, has a much-talked about history nevertheless when it comes to banters. During Mohun Bagan and East Bengal matches, the bad blood and mouthful of foul words are on a sky-high level.
For now, Brazil are luckily making another appearance at the stadium this Wednesday for their semifinal match against England. The match was scheduled to take place in Guwahati, but poor ground conditions made the organisers change the venue.
