By
Eniola Olatunji.

The Nigerian Golden Eaglets on Tuesday at the University of Ghana Sports Stadium dimmed the Black Starlets team at the University of Ghana Sports Stadium at the stoppage time to clinch the Bronze Medal of the WAFU U17 tournament.

Abdul Adeleke who scored a Brace against Togo again got another brace against Ghana at the dot of the injury time when the Coaches were plotting those to take their penalty shootouts to give the match to Nigeria 3-2.

Adeleke had shot the ball to hit the horizontal bar at 92 minutes and a sloppy clearance made the ball to come back to him which he willfully kicked to the left corner of the Ghanaian net for the nail biting victory.

Ghana was so pained to have lost two Bronze Medals back to back in the U17 tournament as that was there lot in 2022 so the Starlets wept with anyone to console them.

Immurana Muhammed had opened scoring for Nigeria before Ghana equalized and scored the second goal putting the Golden Eaglets in a tight corner as defending champions but Adeleke equalized for Nigeria in the 40th minute before the winner in the 92nd minute.

The Eaglets were desperate for goals in the second half that the players shot anywhere from 25 meters and I must have counted over 20 glaring chances shot over the bar. Such was their poor marksmanship at goal. 

Nigeria lost to the Ivory Coast team by a lone goal in the 1st semifinal while Ghana lost 1-2 to Burkina Faso.

The Black Starlets are after the Nigerian U17 records as the team won the U17 world cup twice in 1991 and 1995; won the AFCON U17 trophy in 1995 and 1999.

General records show that Nigeria’s Golden Eaglets are the best from Africa in that age category having appeared 12 times for world cup finals and clinched the title five times in 1985; 1993; 2007; 2013 and 2015. Nigeria won the AFCON trophy thrice. 

Unclear signals from FIFA indicates that Africa has been given more slots in the next world cup finals and Nigeria will now have a chances for a 13th appearance at the world cup finals.

The final between two Anglophone countries, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast, is ongoing at the University of Ghana Sports Stadium.