Nigeria will face Ivory Coast in the semi-finals of the ongoing WAFU B U-17 Championship in Ghana on Saturday after sailing out of the group stage on top of the table with a 3-0 win over Togo in their last group game on Thursday.
In the rescheduled last Group B game, which was played at the Rugby Pitch of the University of Ghana, striker Abdulmuiz Adeleke bagged a brace plus another goal from Rapha Adams ensured the Golden Eaglets’ second win, which earned them seven points and a superior goal difference ahead of Burkina Faso.
Adeleke came up big in the morning encounter with his double, while Rapha Adams did his rising reputation no harm with his second of the tournament.
After missing a chance to put Nigeria ahead in the sixth minute, Adeleke made no mistake five minutes later with an assist from Abdulmuiz Oladimeji while Rapha added the second to give Nigeria a 2-0 lead into the break.
Adeleke got his brace and Nigeria’s third in the 57th minute, off another assist from captain Cletus.
The forward should have made it a hat-trick but fluffed a penalty kick awarded to the Eaglets in the 68th minute.
Nigeria’s Edward Ochigbo was selected as Player of the Match.
The match ought to have been played on Wednesday evening but was postponed to Thursday morning after the venue became water-logged following a downpour.
It didn’t go down without another delay on Thursday as the pitch was only marked and the goalposts erected while the two teams waited well past the 9 am kick-off time.
Nigeria will now clash with Ivory Coast in the second semi-finals on Saturday evening (7 pm Nigeria time), after the first semi-final between Ghana and Burkina Faso.
The two finalists will pick the tickets to next year’s U-17 AFCON, which serves as qualifiers for the expanded 2025 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Qatar.
