Ri Un Sim scored a pair of late goals as North Korea eliminated Canada from the women's under-17 World Cup with a 2-1 quarter-final win Thursday in Azerbaijan.

Ri scored in the 78th and 87th minute to send North Korea on to the final four. She now has seven goals in four games at the tournament.

Nichelle Prince scored with a 20-yard drive in added time for Canada, but by then it was too late to find an equalizer.

North Korea is looking for its second win in three tournaments, also claiming top spot in New Zealand in 2008.

'Canadians fought a lot harder'

Former Canadian national soccer team player Clare Rustad, now a commentator with CBC Sports, said the Canadians can take several positives from Thursday's result, despite their elimination.

"I thought today's game was a much better performance than Canada put in in the group phase." Rustad said. "They were much stronger defensively [and] they didn't really allow the North Koreans to have much space on the ball.

"They made a couple of mistakes and the North Koreans punished them for it, but I really thought the Candians fought a lot harder in this game than other games. They didn't seem surprised by the pressure today."

As for impact players to watch for in the future, Rustad said goal-scoring standout Summer Clarke and fellow forward Nichelle Prince had good showings at the tournament, and noted that the cool-under-pressure performance of Canadian goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan was vital to the team.

"[Sheridan] was sharp throughout the whole tournament," Rustad said. "She kept them in contention in the quarter-final game, but she kept them in some of the other games as well."

With files from CBCSports.ca