Nigeria’s Flying Eagles are condemned to defeat the Junior Elephants of Cote by scoring at least two goals if the Nigerians are to qualify into the Semi Finals of the ongoing WAFU U20 tourney i as Cote d’Ivoire defeated Burkina Faso 1-0 in the WAFU B U20 AFCON on Monday in Togo Sports247 reports.
The Young Elephants of Cote d’Ivoire are clearly the best of the two sides, they burst out of the block at the blast of the first whistle and created most of the chances of the match but they failed to convert the chances created and the first half ended goalless.
The match was more open in the second half as both sides came out for the goals as the Burkina babies created early chances before the 60th minute mark
The junior elephants quests to win the game suffered a setback in the 75th minute when striker Konate was sent off for dangerous play.
Burkina Faso took advantage and threatened the defence line of the Ivorian but failed to find a breakthrough.
With two minutes to the end of the match, fortune smiles on the junior elephants as they broke the deadlock against the run of play and won the match 1-0 at the death.
The result leaves the Flying Eagles at the bottom of the group as only two teams out of the three in the group will qualify.
Nigeria who failed to spark and fire blank in their first against Burkina Faso will have to to score two goals and defeat Cote’ d’ivoire in their final game of the competition to book a passage into the next round.
Burkina Faso has completed their group matches, they are second with 3 points , zero goal difference and will be looking forward to Cote d’ivoire defeating or playing a draw with Nigeria, to confirm their place in the Semis.
The finalists of the 2024 WAFU B U20 football tournament will represent the region at the 2025 U20 African Cup of Nations billed for Egypt next year.
The CAF U20 AFCON will also serve at the qualifying tournaments for the 2025 FIFA U20 World Cup.with all the semi-finalists booking their World Cup tickets.
