Eaglets Battle Guinea For U-17 AFCON Final Place
Two-time champions Golden Eaglets and West African rivals Guinea clash at the National Stadium, Dar es Salaam on Wednesday (today) in the first semi-final of the Africa U-17 Cup of Nations.
All the four teams in the semi-finals: Nigeria, Guinea, Cameroon and Angola have secured their places at the 2019 U-17 World Cup in Brazil.
Nigeria were victorious in the competition in 2001 and 2007, and are the record winners of the U-17 World Cup (five times).
However, the Guineans have been impressive coming into the competition and are the reasons why Cup holders Mali are not in Tanzania, having beaten them at the WAFU Tournament in September to earn their ticket.
The Junior Syli Nationale also flaunt victories over Senegal and Morocco in the group phase ahead of their clash with the Eaglets.
While the Eaglets have appeared nine times, Guinea are making their seventh appearance at the U-17 AFCON, which began in Mali 24 years ago.
They reached the last four of this year’s competition after beating hosts Tanzania 5-4 in their thrilling opening Group A fixture, before they edged Angola 1-0 in a tough tie that placed them firmly atop their group.
They came from behind to hold Uganda 1-1 to emerge winners of Group B with seven points ahead of second-place Angola, who had six points, after wins over Uganda and Tanzania.
Coach Manu Garba is most likely to start with his regular squad, with Sunday Stephen in goal, Shedrack Tanko and Ogaga Oduko as wing-backs, Clement Ikenna and David Ishaya at centre-back, captain Samson Tijani, MayowaAbayomi (or Fawaz Abdullahi) and OlatomiOlaniyan in the midfield, and Akinkunmi Amoo, Olakunle Olusegun and Wisdom Ubani in attack.
In the second semi-final, Cameroon and Angola clash in what is expected to be another enthralling encounter.
