A few weeks after being crowned WAFU B U-20 champions, the Nigeria U-17 team has won another title in the region.
The five-time world champions, Golden Eaglets, edged the Young Stallions of Burkina Faso 2-1 in Saturday’s final at the Cape Coast Stadium, Ghana.
The win against Burkina Faso was the coach Nduka Ugbade-led side’s fourth consecutive win at the competition.
Abubakar Abdullahi scored a brace to ensure the Eaglets replicated the feat achieved by the country’s U-20 team, the Flying Eagles in Niamey a month ago.
Having both finished as the top teams in their respective groups, the Nigeria- Burkina Faso final was a perfect match to determine who was the overall best.
Interestingly, it was the Young Etalons that dominated the early proceedings and almost took an early lead in the fifth minute but were denied by smart goalkeeping by the Golden Eaglets’ number one Richard Odoh.
Abubakar Abdullahi opened the scoring in the 23rd minute as he leapt to head in a delightful cross from Emmanuel Michael.
With four minutes left in the first half Ouedraogo got the equaliser for Burkina Faso after he headed in a cross.
But in the 48th minute, Abubakar Abdullahi grabbed his second goal to put the Eaglets 2-1 up. A free-kick from Michael saw the Burkinabe keeper drop the ball before Idris slotted home the rebound.
Both finalists will represent the WAFU Zone B at the 2023 U-17 tournament in Algeria.
In the third-place match played earlier on Friday, Ghana beat Côte d’Ivoire 3-2 to end the campaign on a high.