Serbia stun Brazil, crowned under-20 world champions

Wellington: Serbia pulled off a historic 2-1 win in extra time to beat heavily favoured Brazil in the final of the FIFA Under-20 World Cup in Auckland on Saturday. The scores were locked at 1-1 at the end of regulation play and the creative Nemanja Maksimovic put away the winner with two minutes remaining in extra time. He pushed a through ball from Andrija Zivkovic past Jean to bring success for Serbia who were in the tournament for the first time as an independent nation, although their Yugoslavian predecessors had won the 1987 edition.

The gentle tap left the Brazilians in despair, with their dreams of atoning for an embarrassing 2014  when they suffered a record 1-7 defeat to Germany in the World Cup semifinals  left in tatters. Maksimovic had earlier set up Serbia’s opening goal in the 70th minute with a cross ball to Stanisa Mandic who slammed a close-range shot past Jean. But they had little time to celebrate that goal as Brazil struck back almost immediately with a brilliant solo effort by substitute Andreas Pereira.

The Manchester United youngster weaved his way through the Serbian defenders and whipped the ball past a diving Predrag Rajkovic to send the game into extra time. Surprisingly, Brazil had dominated the early stages of the game.