West Ham United striker Dylan Tombides will be on show this evening when Australia take on Brazil at the FIFA U17 World Cup in Mexico.

The 17-year-old is set to lead the line for the Joeys in a glamour Group F match to be screened live from 9pm UK time on British Eurosport 2.

Tombides has been earning rave reviews at the finals after he popped up with just 13 minutes remaining to help Australia to a 2-1 victory in their opening match against Ivory Coast.

The goal helped turn a game that the African nation had dominated for long periods, particularly before half-time, and served as an illustration of the team spirit within the Australia squad.

Tombides' strike helped the unfancied Asian Championship semi-finalists kick-off their campaign with three points ahead of difficult-looking group-stage fixtures against tonight's opponents Brazil and Denmark.

The teenager took time out from his busy schedule to speak exclusively to whufc.com about the victory, his goal, his unique celebration and the challenges ahead.

Dylan, the Ivory Coast had most of the play and more chances and shots on goal, so you and your team-mates really had to hang in there and show some spirit to get result, didn't you?

"Ivory Coast did dominate us in terms of possession. They were a very good attacking side with lots of flair and ability and were very quick as well, so they recovered in our attacking third fast if they took a bad touch.

"A lot of their shots came from outside the box, ranging from as 18 yards to 35 yards. I would say 90 per cent of their shots were from 25 yards and further which was fine by us.

"Yes, we hung in long enough to get the result, but everyone was shaking towards the end!"

Your coach Jan Versleijen is quoted as saying that the team needed to get you more into the game in the second half. Is that what happened? And it obviously worked!?

"I thought personally, both first and the second half, we didn't look foward enough as a team, not just to me but to the wide areas and players in attacking areas, which did frustrate us.

"I'm sure the coaching staff wouldn't have been too happy with us just playing around the backline cause you can't win games like that. We did what we had to do and managed to get two goals which were enough."

Talk us through your goal, please? It was a nice bit of skill to lose the defender and then you slotted the ball inside the near post.

I've had a lot of comments saying it was a great bit of skill to lose my defender and a cool finish, so I'm very happy with that.

I thought the chance was gone when the Ivory Coast defender made the tackle on Teeboy Kamara but credit to our holding midfielder Jacob Melling who managed to deflect the ball into my path after blocking a defender's pass. I took one touch to control it and another touch into the box, then sold the defender and slotted it home.

You must have been confident of scoring as you pulled out your shin pad and displayed a birthday message to your Mum to the television cameras?!

"Ha! I was confident that i would get a chance - it was just a case of whether I would be able to take it or not, which in this case I did!

"Mum saw the game live on TV and was very proud, but I had no idea my goal would be the winner so it makes it that much better."

You have got Brazil up next which will be a big challenge considering they beat Denmark 3-0 in their first game? Confidence must be building, though, after you won your two warm-up games and then defeated Ivory Coast?

"Yes we do realise that Brazil are going to present a big challenge. We are aware that if we play the same way we did against Ivory Coast against Brazil, then they will punish us and we won't be able to get back into the game.

"We can't do anything silly if we want to have a chance, but we believe in ourselves and our confidence should be high because we have a chance to go through to the next round."

As you say, you have an opportunity to qualify for the last-16 if you achieve a positive result against Brazil. You must have real belief that you can reach the knockout stages?

"We are aware that we have a great chance of making it through to the knockout stages now, but we can't go into the next games with the mentality that we are already through."