Nigel Si­mon

Hav­ing avoid­ed elim­i­na­tion in the group stages with a 1�0 win over host T&T, de­fend­ing cham­pi­on Ko­rea DPR faces a test when it meets Ger­many in one of two Fi­fa Un­der-17 Women's World Cup quar­ter­fi­nal match­es to­day. The clash be­tween, Ko­rea DPR, run­ner-up in Group A and Group B win­ner, Ger­many kicks off at the Man­ny Ramjohn Sta­di­um, Mara­bel­la from 7pm. Three hours ear­li­er, Asian cham­pi­on, South Ko­rea will play Nige­ria. While the open­ing fix­ture at Mara­bel­la is ex­pect­ed to be a keen con­test, the big ques­tion on every­one's lip will be just which team can stop the ram­pant Ger­mans.

The Eu­ro­peans flat­tened every­thing in their path in Group B, chalk­ing up big wins against Mex­i­co (9�0), South Africa (10�1) and South Ko­rea (3�0) with the tour­na­ment's top goalscor­ers, Kyra Ma­li­nows­ki (sev­en goals), Lena Pe­ter­mann (five) and Lena Lotzen (four) on a ram­page. The task of halt­ing coach Ralf Pe­ter team's progress now falls on Ko­rea DPR, which has re­cov­ered well since los­ing to Nige­ria 3�2 in its open­ing match. With mid­field­er Kim Kum-Jong play­ing a promi­nent role, the North Ko­re­ans kept cleans sheets in dis­pos­ing of Chile (3�0) and then the So­ca Princess­es (1�0), but have yet to hit the heights that made them in­au­gur­al world cham­pi­ons two years ago in New Zealand.

Back then, Ko­rea DPR bat­tled to a 1�1 draw in its fi­nal group match with the Ger­mans, in their lone meet­ing be­fore go­ing on to cap­ture the crown with a 2�1 in ex­tra-time vic­to­ry over USA as the Ger­mans got third, blank­ing Eng­land 3�0. But to­day the stakes are a lot high­er as on­ly one will be left to con­tin­ue its quest for top ho­n­ours, a task Ko­rea DPR coach Ri Song-Gu knows too well. "Ger­many are a very pow­er­ful side. They have a lot of skill and phys­i­cal strength to go with it and their play­ers are tech­ni­cal­ly gift­ed and very strong men­tal­ly. You can't pre­dict a re­sult for a game like this but we're go­ing to give it our best shot be­cause we want to re­tain the ti­tle," said Song-Gu whose team was beat­en 4�0 in the Asian fi­nal by South Ko­rea.

The win­ner of the Ger­many/Ko­rea DPR match will meet the win­ner of to­mor­row's quar­ter­fi­nal be­tween Re­pub­lic of Ire­land and Japan in one semi­fi­nal on Tues­day at the Ato Boldon Sta­di­um, Cou­va from, 7pm.

Like the Ger­mans, Nige­ria, which went out in the group stages two years ago racked up three wins in the group stage, com­ing from be­hind to down the North Ko­re­ans, edg­ing out the hosts (2�1) and then slam­ming five past Chile with­out re­ply. The un­der­stand­ing be­tween strik­ers Fran­cis­ca Or­de­ga and Loveth Ay­i­la has been vi­tal to the Flamin­goes progress, not to men­tion the in­stinc­tive­ness of vet­er­an mid­field­er Ngozi Oko­bi.

Mean­while, last-eight op­po­nents South Ko­rea Re­pub­lic have yet to re­cap­ture the form they showed in win­ning the Asian qual­i­fi­ca­tion com­pe­ti­tion. With un­cer­tain­ty hang­ing over the avail­abil­i­ty of in­jured strik­er Kim Dahye, the Taeguk Ladies will be look­ing to mid­field star­let Yeo Min-Ji to car­ry the game to the Nige­ri­ans.

The win­ner of the Nige­ria/South Ko­rea match will face the Spain/Brazil quar­ter­fi­nal win­ner in the oth­er semi­fi­nal at Lar­ry Gomes Sta­di­um, Mal­abar on Tues­day from 4 pm.

Fix­tures

To­day

Quar­ter­fi­nal

Venue: Man­ny Ramjohn Sta­di­um, Mara­bel­la.

Nige­ria vs South Ko­rea, 4pm

Ger­many vs Ko­rea DPR, 7pm.

To­mor­row

Venue: Ato Boldon Sta­di­um,Cou­va.

Spain vs Brazil, 4pm.

Venue: Lar­ry Gomes Sta­di­um, Mal­abar.

Re­pub­lic of Ire­land vs Japan, 7pm.