Russia cruised to a comfortable 2-0 victory over Korea DPR at the FIFA U-17 World Cup in Chile Monday night, thanks to a goal in each half – first from Ivan Galanin and then Fedor Chalov. Despite Korea DPR creating some clear-cut chances of their own, the European side controlled proceedings and look good value as early Group E leaders.
The Russians made an electric start, and were ahead within two minutes. Alexander Lomovitskiy crossed the ball in from the left, Dmitrii Pletnev cut the ball back and Galanin was there to sidefoot home.
Russia will face the other opening victors in Group E, Costa Rica on Thursday in Concepcion, while Korea DPR will look to get on the right track against South Africa earlier that day.
Paraguay in Group F also kicked-off their 2015 FIFA U-17 World Cup campaign with a confident 4-1 win over Syria in Puerto Montt.
The Asian representatives were energetic throughout backed by a noisy band of supporters, but Paraguay had too much class and held a 2-0 lead at the break thanks to two goals in a four-minute spell.
Substitute Carlos Ferreira iced the cake with a fourth in the dying moments, to leave Paraguay well placed in a Group F which also includes France and New Zealand.
*Culled from www.fifa.com