Eu­ro­pean cham­pi­on Spain takes cen­tre-stage against Japan at the Ato Boldon Sta­di­um, Cou­va from 4 pm to­day, the sec­ond day of the 2010 Fi­fa Un­der-17 Women's World Cup. Three hours lat­er, 2008 host coun­try New Zealand will be­gin against South Amer­i­can debu­tants Venezuela. Known for their short-pass­ing game and smooth touch on the ball, the Japan­ese–third-place fin­ish­ers in the Asian zone–will have their work cut out against the Span­ish, who scored 36 goals while con­ced­ing just three in the qual­i­fiers.

New Zealand–who went out in the group stage as hosts in 2008–will open against Venezuela, debu­tantes at this lev­el hop­ing to make a big splash. At the Lar­ry Gomes Sta­di­um, Mal­abar, Group D gets un­der­way with an in­trigu­ing en­counter be­tween Re­pub­lic of Ire­land and favourites, South Amer­i­can cham­pi­ons, Brazil from 4 pm. Brazil is among the tra­di­tion­al pow­ers in the world of women's foot­ball, and they will be out to avenge their ig­no­min­ious fail­ure to reach the quar­ter-fi­nals at the in­au­gur­al Un­der-17 fi­nals in New Zealand two years ago.

How­ev­er, the Irish ar­rive in T&T hav­ing put paid to mighty Ger­many and they were on­ly just pipped to a first-ever Eu­ro­pean women's ti­tle af­ter los­ing a shootout to Spain but to­day they will have to con­tend with a Brazil­ian team which scored 41 goals in qual­i­fy­ing, the most by any team, led by Paula and Glau­cia with sev­en goals apiece. Cana­da ar­rives with a fear­some rep­u­ta­tion af­ter elim­i­nat­ing the much-feared USA, run­ner-up two years ago, in the pre­lim­i­nary rounds.