Nemanja Maksimovic scored late in extra time as Serbia pulled off a historic 2-1 win to beat heavily-favoured Brazil in the final of the FIFA Under-20 World Cup at North Harbour Stadium on Saturday. The match seemed headed for a penalty shootout when Serbia counterattacked in the 118th minute and Stefan Ilic combined with Andrija Zivkovic to put Maksimovic in behind the defence and he calmly slotted his low shot past goalkeeper Jean.
The gentle tap left the Brazilians in despair, with their dreams of atoning for an embarrassing 2014 — when they suffered a record 7-1 defeat to Germany in the World Cup semi-finals — left in tatters.
The victory, and Serbia’s first title as an independent nation, owed much to goalkeeper and captain Pedrag Rajkovic who pulled off a series of saves to repeatedly deny Brazil the victory.
The game had been locked at 1-1 at regulation time after Stanisa Mandic had given the Serbs hopes of their first title as an independent nation with 20 minutes remaining but Andreas Pereira equalised three minutes later.
The former Yugoslavia won the title in 1987 in Chile, with Serbia appearing in the tournament for the first time in New Zealand.
“I can tell you we were lucky,” Serbia coach Veljko Paunovic said. “But luck is a part of the game and you have to deserve to be lucky. At the end I believe the team that wanted to win most would win this trophy and we got it.”
In the earlier match for third place, Adama Traore produced two sensational long-range strikes to help Mali beat 10-man Senegal 3-1.
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