Nigeria, Zambia Lead Qualifiers For U-17 Tourney

World champions Nige
ria, South Africa, Uganda and Zambia have qualified in impressive fashion for the final round of the qualifying tournament of the 2015 African U-17 Championship.
Nigeria’s Golden Eaglets thrashed visiting DR Congo 4-0 to go through 5-0 on aggregate, South Africa dumped Tanzania 4-0 at home to advance by the same aggregate and Uganda beat Rwanda home and away for an aggregate scores of 7-2 to do same.
The reward for the rampant Nigerians will be a clash against Gabon, while South Africa and Uganda face Egypt and Zambia, respectively.
Zambia also humbled Botswana 6-0 after they won 5-0 in Gaborone at the weekend. Egypt scrapped through 6-5 on penalties in Congo, who overturned a first leg 1-0 deficit on Sunday. Guinea won home and away against Morocco, 1-0 in Conakry and 2-1 in Morocco. Morocco reached the semi-finals at last year’s final tournament, which they hosted.
Cameroon held on to a 2-0 home  victory in Burkina Faso, where they drew 0-0 on Sunday, while Angola marched on at the expense of Mozambique, who lost the away tie 2-0 after they pipped their opponents 2-1 in the first encounter. Togo sneaked through on the away goals rule ahead of Senegal after they drew 1-1 in Dakar. The first leg in Lome ended 0-0.
Sierra Leone and Ghana are also through to the final qualifiers following the withdrawal of Tunisia and South Sudan, respectively. The return leg involving defending champions Cote d’Ivoire and Libya was cancelled because of the war in Libya.
The Ivorians won the first game 4-0 in Abidjan to move to the next stage of the qualifying tournament, where they will battle Angola.
The final round of qualifiers will be decided in September with the seven finalists joining hosts Niger Republic at the African U-17 Championship to be played in February.