Emmanuel Toku emerged as the hero of the day when his penalty kick sent Ghana to their final of 2017 Africa U-17 Nations Cup, after a nervy shootout against Niger
Black Starlets booked a place in the final of the 2017 Africa U-17 Nations Cup final after they defeated Niger 6-5 on penalties in a semi-final tie at the Port Gentil Sports Stadium on Wednesday.
The U-17 national male football team of Ghana squandered all the chances they created both in the first and second half of the game to end the 90 minutes without finding the back of the net against their less fancied opponents, Niger and for the second game running they failed to score.
Ghana had been tipped to ease their way into the final after they scored nine goals in their opening two games, but they failed to take their chances and at a point their passes were not going through as expected.
In the first half, Ghana created opportunities, but chances were wasted, most notably from Eric Ayiah, the joint leading top scorer who shot wide on two different occasions in the first despite coming very close to breaking the deadlock of the game. Gabriel Laveh and Edmund Arko Mensah also had their turns of the numerous opportunities and they followed suit by fluffing them.
The closest Niger came to scoring in the first half was presented to Yacouba Aboubacar, yet he blasted the ball to the wrong direction.
After the interval it became an end to end action, as the Nigerian came into the game to also cause some threats in the goal area of Ghana.
Abdul Rashid Yusif in the hour mark headed a powerful ball from a well-executed corner kick, but the ball hit the cross bar to give Niger a big sigh
Eric ErAyiah made a dangerous run into the Nigerien goal area, yet the goalkeeper stopped the ball to rescue Niger.
Ghana took total control of the game from the 65th minute of the second half and started to fire the balls from all angles in search of the opener and in one of such moves Eric Ayiah who was put through beat his marker, but his final ball was acrobatically saved by Khaled Lawali Ibrahim in post for Niger.
Before that Mohammed Iddriss long range shot had missed the post by some few inches.
In the late minute, Ghana came under attack and they survived a late minute scare when a long range ball from Niger hit the cross, before Ghana had their turn with an opportunity to secure a late minute goal, yet a defensive clearance saw the ball hit the woodwork to throw into penalty shootout.
Emmanuel Toku emerged as the hero of the day when his penalty kick sent Ghana to their final of 2017 Africa U-17 Nations Cup, after a nervy shootout against Niger Read Full Story
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Instagram
Google+
YouTube
LinkedIn
RSS