THE Golden Eaglets of Nigeria have been dumped out of the WAFU B U-17 Championship, meaning they will not qualify for the 2025 U-17 Africa Cup of Nations and the FIFA U-17 World Cup.
The five-time world champions lost 1-0 to Cote d’Ivoire in last night’s semi-final of the WAFU tournament in Accra, Ghana, which serves as the qualifying competition for the U-17 AFCON.
Youbah Coulibaly took advantage of a defensive mix-up by Manu Garba’s side in the 54th minute to fire Cote d’Ivoire ahead and that turned out to be the only goal of the encounter at the University of Ghana Stadium.
Also, three-time world champions and hosts of the West African tournament Ghana were eliminated last night.
The Black Starlets lost 2-1 to Burkina Faso in their own semi-final to join Nigeria in missing out on AFCON and the World Cup.
The finalists of the WAFU B tournament will advance to the 2025 U-17 AFCON, which in turn serves as the qualifying competition for the FIFA U-17 World Cup.
It is the second time in a row that the Golden Eaglets, who won their last FIFA U-17 title in 2015, have failed to qualify for the global tournament.
