Mali stand in way of Ghana’s first U-17 trophy in 19 years

Ghana will come up against with defending champions Mali in the final of the 2017 African U17 Championship on Sunday.
Mali set up a final clash with the Black Starlets after a hard earned victory over Guinea. Les Aiglonnets beat the Guinea 2-0 on penalties to reach their second consecutive final.
Mali won the last edition of the tournament two years ago in Niger.
The Black Starlets are confident of claiming the title for the first time since 1999, having already secured qualification for the World Cup in India for the first time in a decade.




But they are no more the bookmakers favourite to lift the trophy as a result of the sudden decline in performance. After demolishing Cameroon 4-0 and annihilating host Gabon in the first two games, they have struggled in their last two games against Guinea and Niger failing to score against neither.
Black Starlets have been highly profligate. They fluffed several scoring opportunities in Wednesday’s semifinal against Niger and were lucky to sail through via penalty shoot-out, according to head coach Paa Kwesi Fabin.
”We have given people of Port Gentil really entertainment, it was a very tactical match and I want to congratulate Niger for giving us a very good match,” Fabin said in a post-match interview
”Though we had chances, we missed them up but we are lucky to go through on penalties, we would go back into the drawing and correct the mistakes before heading for the final on Sunday.
”We scored nine goals in the first two matches and we couldn’t score in the last two matches.
”I wished I can be crowned winners of this tournament now because I don’t have any preference between Mali and Guinea.”
Coach Paa Kwesi Fabin’s men need to produce their “best performance of all time” to win the tournament.

Source:Myjoyonline