Cairo - Brazil and Costa Rica on Saturday made the most of defensive blunders by their opponents as they qualified for the semi- finals of the Under-20 World Cup after beating Germany and the United Arab Emirates 2-1 respectively. Both games went into extra time and both matches were decided by goals that resulted from mistakes.
Costa Rica scored the winner in the second minute of injury time in extra time, while Brazil scored an equalizer in the 88th minute.
The Central Americans, who were thrashed by Brazil 5-0 in a group game and will now face the South Americans in the round of the last four, had to come from behind to see off a powerful challenge from the UAE, who took the lead through Ahmed Ali in the 33rd minute.
Their lead however lasted just four minutes as Josue Martinez levelled matters.
Neither side then managed to find the net and the game had to go into extra time. There it seemed that no further goals would be scored and a penalty shoot-out would have to decide, but a poor back header to the goalkeeper allowed a Costa Rican striker through in injury time.
Yousif Abdulrahman managed to block the first effort, a defender threw himself into the path of the second shot, but they could do nothing as Marcos Urena blasted the ball into the net.
In the earlier game of the double-header in the International Stadium in Cairo, 30,000 spectators saw the overwhelming favourites Brazil flirt with danger before having super-sub Maicon to thank for going through.
Although the Brazilians enjoyed most of the possession throughout the opening 90 minutes, it was Schalke 04 defender Lewis Holtby who gave Germany the lead in the 73rd minute with a well-taken header.
Germany were then two minutes away from the semi-finals before Fluminense forward Maicon, who had come on in the 77th minute, found a late equalizer for the South Americans in the 88th minute.
The game went into extra-time and just a minute had passed when Maicon made the most of a defensive blunder between German defender Lars Bender and their goalkeeper to lob the ball over Ron-Robert Zieler.
Although they tried their best to come back into the game, Germany simply lacked the strength to draw level again.
On Friday Ghana beat South Korea 3-2 to qualify for the semi- finals against Hungary, who beat Italy by the same score.
