Captain Jann-Fiete Arp led the charge as Germany displayed awesome firepower to demolish Colombia 4-0 to become the first team to storm into the quarterfinals of the FIFA U-17 World Cup at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Delhi on Monday.

Striker Jann-Fiete Arp showed why he is rated so highly by the football fraternity as he came up with a sublime performance.

Germany shrugged off their lacklustre show in the league phase to serve notice to other title contenders. For the winners who led 2-0 at half-time, the goal scorers were Jann-Fiete Arp (7th, 65th) Yann Bisseck (39th) and John Yeboah (49th).

There was not much of a difference between the two teams in terms style of play. But Germany played to a plan which paid dividends. The twenty thousand plus crowd witnessed a highly entertaining and engrossing battle in which Germans outmanoeuvred the rivals with better coordination and tactics.

Arp was Germany’s live wire. He moved up, turned back swiftly and was superbly assisted by mid-fielder John Yeboah, Sahverdi Cetin and Dennis Jastrzembski. The winners’ defence was tight and Luca Plogmann was outstanding under the bar.

Germany made their intent clear that they mean business from the very start as they attacked the Colombian citadel and in the 7th minute took the lead with Arp breaching the Colombian goal with a superb effort (1-0). The South Americans tried to retaliate through Andrez Perea and their points man Juan Penaloza. Both tried but Germany beefed up their midfield with five players and the Colombians just could not breach that wall. Penaloza was also marked very tightly and German defence foiled the moves made by their rivals from the flanks.

Colombians tried to keep the ball in the air but Germany defenders headed away from all those threats. The South Americans kept threatening but German’s counter moves were more threatening. Colombian captain Thomas Gutierrez had an opening but found Plogmann under the bar tough to beat.

After 25 minutes Germans established their dominance in the field and started attacking from both the flanks and the Colombian citadel collapsed in the 39th minute when Yenn Biisseck headed home a cross from Cetin (2-0).
Rattled by the goal, South Africans made strong moves and had two good chances but one went over the bar and other goalkeeper blocked.

Three minutes into the second session, Germany consolidated their lead when Arp created a superb opening for Yeboah who made no mistake and with a left-footer send the ball home (3-0).

Germany kept their relentless pressure and missed two good chances while one was blocked by goalkeeper Kevin Meir.

On the other hand, Colombian were unlucky as their striker turned out to be poor marksmen at least on two occasions. Penaloza looked Forlorn as he was not able to intercept some good crosses sent to him from the flanks. The Germans sealed the match in the 65th minute when Arp score a stunning goal, leaving the defenders and goalkeeper bewildered (4-0).

The Germans sealed the match in the 65th minute when Arp score a stunning goal, leaving the defenders and goalkeeper bewildered (4-0).

The Colombians trailing 0-4 did not give up, they launched an all-out attack and for next 15 minutes, Germany defences battled it out and foiled all the moves of their rivals to romp home victorious.