Golden Eaglets battles ‘favourites’ Burkina Faso for U17 AFCON ticket

The Golden Eaglets will later today take on high-scoring Burkina Faso for a place in the U17 AFCON in Morocco in July after what one relieved team official told SCORENigeria “we came back from the dead”.

The five-time world champions looked dead and buried after they failed to beat Ghana in their second Group B match after their opening day loss to the impressive Cote d’Ivoire.

But the Ivorians will do Nigeria a big favour with a 3-1 win over Ghana to hand the Eaglets passage to the last four of the qualifying tournament.

Today they face a stern test against winners of Group A Burkina Faso, who thrashed Benin 5-1, before they were held to a goalless by Niger.

The Eaglets have struggled to impress in Togo 2021 and they will have to step up their game if they hoped to go past Burkina Faso to reach the final of U17 AFCON qualifiers and in so doing be one of two teams to advance to the U17 AFCON in Morocco later this year.

Their only goal thus far was a penalty converted by Joseph Arumala, while their finishing has been poor with striker Michael Papo the worst culprit.

Coach Fatai Amoo admitted Burkina Faso are one of the favourites to win this competition and his team will have to do more to win.

“They are one of the favourites from what I saw of them. They are a high-scoring side and that should bring the best out of us,” he said.

“Our biggest undoing is that we have not taken our chances and we cannot afford to do so because this is the qualification match for the AFCON.

“We hope to do better than our first two games by converting our chances and defending resolutely to reach the final.”

Kick-off time is 4pm in Lome, which is 5pm in Nigeria.