The 2023 under 17 AFCON dreams of Nigerian Nigeria’s Golden Eaglets was dashed as they crashed out of the ongoing tournament after falling 2-1 to fellow West Africans Burkina Faso in the quarter-finals in Algiers.
The result now means the Golden Eaglets will not be participating in the under 17 World Cup that would take place later this year, with Burkina Faso completing the quartet of teams to represent Africa in the tournament.
The other teams are Senegal, Mali, and Morocco.
The Nigerians have their poor finishing skills and defensive blunders to blame for the result.
The Junior Stallions went into a 2-0 lead over the five-time world champions courtesy of Aboubacar Camara.
He first found the back of the net from a rebound just before halftime before completing his brace on 57 minutes from the penalty spot after a goal-bound Burkinabe player was fouled inside the box.
Abubakar Abdullahi, however, pulled one back for Nigeria midway through the second half with a simple tap in giving the Eaglets a hope of comeback.
But it was not to be as the young Nigerians failed to convert any chance in front of goal to pull level.
The Burkinabes will play Senegal in the first semi-final game while Mali are billed to battle Morocco in the other match.
In another report, the Chief Executive Officer of Bayern Munich, Oliver Kahn claims that it will amount to a risky move for the Bavarians to make any move to sign Nigerian international Victor Osimhen for €150m despite his impressive performance in Serie A.
The Nigerian striker has had the best season of his career and powered Partenopei to their first historic Scudetto after 33 years to become the first Nigerian player to win the Serie A title.
The Nigerian forward scored the decisive goal in the second half as Napoli came back from trailing to defeat Udinese 2-1.
The German champions have been on the radar for the Napoli prolific goal-poacher in a bid to get his signature in the summer, for the Bayern star believes the price tag on Osimhen is too high and notes that the player is not worth the mega fee.