Nigeria’s U17 boys, Golden Eaglets have lost out of this year’s WAFU-B U17 Championship taking place in Burkina Faso, following a 1-1 draw with Cote d’Ivoire in their last group phase encounter on Saturday.
Their 1-2 loss to Niger Republic on Wednesday had rendered Saturday’s clash with the Baby Elephants a ‘must-win,’ but the Eaglets conceded first when Alex Fousseni made good use of a counter attack to put his team ahead after 16 minutes.
The Eaglets launched onslaught after onslaught but failed to find the opponents’ net, until Abiodun John found the equalizer with only two minutes of regulation time left.
The result meant the Eaglets departed the WAFU-B U17 Championship at group stage.
The result also ends the Golden Eaglets’ dream of playing at the Under-17 Africa Cup of Nations and the FIFA Under-17 World Cup, for which the former serves as a qualifier.
The Golden Eaglets are five-time World Champions but have not been at the World Cup since 2019. They finished bottom of Group B with just one point from two matches.
Meanwhile, Côte d’Ivoire finished second with two points, while Niger topped the group with four points.
