February 12 – Paris St Germain and Sao Paulo will head into the Al Kass International Cup semi-finals to face Arsenal and AC Milan this Friday. Real Madrid crashed out losing by a goal to the Brazilians while the stylish defending champions Aspire International from Qatar were knocked out in a return to form by the French.
The U17 tournament in Doha, Qatar, has pitched the some of the world’s leading club youth schemes against each other in a 10-day tournament which concludes this Sunday.
Sao Paulo, unbeaten so far in the tournament, defeated an accomplished Real Madrid 3-2 in an exciting match packed with skills and stars to watch for the future. The Brazilians withstood an early period of sustained pressure before asserting their dominance, and could easily have won by more than a single goal.
PSG were back to their dominant best as they pushed aside reigning champions Aspire International in a game that broke the hearts of the Qatari hosts. PSG made eight changes to the team that lost by five goals to Sao Paulo in the group stages.
The Qatari’s will be disappointed not to have either of their Aspire teams into the semi-finals but will be pleased that both team made it out of the knockout rounds. Aspire Academy now face Real Madrid while Aspire International will meet Argentina’s River Plate in a bid to make it into the third place play-off.
More importantly, as the Qataris build towards the hosting of the World Cup in 2022, they are again proving they can consistently produce players that can challenge the best in the world, and that the investment in the Aspire Academy programme is producing footballers for their future.
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