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FIFA Under-17 World Cup: Top scorers to square off in grand finale

England’s Brewster, Spain’s Ruiz will look to finish the tourney on a high

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Rhian Brewster of England (left) and Abel Ruiz of Spain are among the three in contention for Golden Boot Award. Mali’s N’Diaye is the other
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Saturday's FIFA Under-17 World Cup title clash between Spain and England is a repeat of the European Championships in Croatia in May with La Rojita pipping the Young Lions in penalty shootout in a tense final.

While Spain will seek to extend their dominance from the continent to the world and win their maiden title in their fourth entry to the final, England will look to avenge the European loss in their first final appearances in four World Cups.

The final will see the battle for the Golden Boot award between England's Liverpool forward Rhian Brewster and Spain's Barcelona striker Abel Ruiz.

Brewster leads the goal-scorers with seven strikes including a hat-trick in both quarterfinals and semifinals, while Ruiz is one behind on six.

Ruiz, who scored two of the three Spanish goals against Mali in the semifinal, led from the front and is an inspiration for the rest of his team.

About the race for the Golden Boot award, Ruiz, with the aid of a Spanish translator, said after the semifinal: "There is no pressure. It's a beautiful challenge scoring for the team and helping the team win. The most important thing is the team wins and it is not about individual goals."

Idolising on Barcelona and Uruguay striker Luis Suarez, the 17-year-old Ruiz was confident of repeating the European final result against England. "We have already faced England in Euro final. We know the team and are excited to play them in the final," he said.

Ruiz does not dwell much into the fact that he sometimes trains with the Barcelona star players. "I want to focus on the final against England and want to talk about that," he excused himself.

Ruiz's coach Santiago Denia was not surprised by Ruiz's goal-scoring abilities. "He is not just the captain but one of the references of the team. He is very demanding of himself, wanting to score more and more every game. He is the first one to know that he could have scored more goals, and in order to perform in the final, he needs to score more. It is true that when you see your captain perform like that, the rest of the team looks up to you. That is what captains are, not just with Spain but all teams."

Brewster is making the right moves in the second tier of English Premier League for Liverpool. In the current season, he has scored three goals for Liverpool in six Premier League 2 games besides assisting in four others.

In fact, Liverpool began with Chelsea at the age of seven but left The Blues at age 14 as he did not see himself making the first team there.

England U-17 coach Steve Cooper is usually not one to speak on individual brilliances in this team sport. But, on Wednesday, after the semifinal win against Brazil, Cooper could not help but talk about Brewster's brilliance.

He said: "It's an amazing achievement to score a hat-trick in the quarterfinal and semifinal. I am not normally one to talk about individuals, and to do that needs special mention. It is not just about his goals, the effort he puts in the team. He is more than a goal scorer. He is a fantastic character. He will be the first to tell you he is part of the team. It is all about representing the country and doing it together."

The Spanish and English defenders will be tested completely in the final to check Brewster and Ruiz, respectively.

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