Morocco’s U17s produced a resolute performance to beat Nigeria’s Golden Eaglets 1-0 in their second group stage game at the 2023 U17 Africa Cup of Nations (U17AFCON) in Algeria on Wednesday.
The Eaglets opened their campaign with a 1-0 win over Zambia on Sunday night but came out stuck by the same score margin against the North Africans who frustrated the efforts of the West Africans.
Defender Tochukwu Ogboji inadvertently headed a vicious cross into his own net, totally wrong-footing the assured goalkeeper Richard Odoh in the 2nd minute and that turned out to be the only goal of the game decided at the Stade Mohamed Hamlaoui in Constantine.
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From the moment the Moroccans went in front, the Eaglets took full control and created a plethora of scoring opportunities but were simply wasteful and/or incoherent in the final third.
Abubakar Abdullahi should have done better than balloon the ball skywards after Emmanuel Michael put him through in the 21st minute, and captain Precious Williams also failed to make hay as the North Africans mounted an impregnable rearguard.
Defender Yahaya Lawali, who was again picked as Man-of-the-Match despite Nigeria’s loss, shot towards the sky with a through ball in the 69th minute. Substitutes Light Eke and Adewale Quadri provided the only real tests for the Moroccan goalkeeper in a frantic second period.
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The victory handed Morocco an automatic passage into the final eight, joining emerging African power house Senegal in the next round, with the West Africans also having won their first two matches in Group A.
The Nduka Ugbade-coached Eaglets will now face South Africa on Saturday, and victory is imperative in order to be assured of qualification to the last eight.
South Africa got their campaign back on track with a 3-2 win over Zambia in the night game in Constantine to set-up a winner-takes-all clash with the Eaglets on Saturday.
