Sports
Mali, Morocco Suffer Defeats At U-17 W/Cup
It was a bad outing for african countries at the fifa u-17 world cup in indonesia as mali and morocco suffered defeat.
After beating Panama 2-0 in their opening match, Morocco fell 0-2 to Ecuador on Monday.
Michael Bermudez scored a match-winning brace as Ecuador surged to the summit of Group A.
In the sweltering heat of Surabaya, captain Michael Bermudez emerged as the South Americans’ hero with a well-taken second-half brace, settling a match that could have gone either way.
Chances were at a premium throughout but Morocco created the better of the few carved out in the first half, including an Abdelhamid Ait Boudlal header that crashed against the face of the bar.
Ecuador, though, improved after the break and won a spot-kick just after the hour-mark when Naoufel El Hannach was lured into a needless foul on Elkin Ruiz.
Bermudez stepped up and, despite Taha Benrhozil dancing on his line in an attempt at distraction, kept his cool to drill a firm and precise penalty into the bottom-left corner.
Morocco still had plenty of time to mount a comeback but created little in the time that followed, and Bermudez completed his brace in stoppage time after snatching on a slack back-pass before skipping past the keeper and slotting home.
Ecuador now look well placed to qualify for the knockout phase.
Their African opponents still remain second after hosts Indonesia and Panama played out a draw.
A 62nd-minute Juan Hernandez strike was enough for Spain to beat 10-man Mali in Surakarta and take a giant leap towards the FIFA U-17 World Cup knockout phase.
The African side played for more than half of the game with a numerical disadvantage after Mamadou Doumbia – hat-trick hero in their opening-game win over Uzbekistan – was sent off.
Ange Martial Tia thought he had given Mali the lead when he slotted home on the half-hour mark – the goal was chalked off, however, following a VAR review for a foul in the build-up by Sekou Kone.
The African side had looked the more likely to score, even before the disallowed goal, but game took a significant turn on 40 minutes when Doumbia was red-carded for a challenge on Pau Prim.
Iwobi spoke to Tidesports source ahead of Nigeria’s crunch playoff semi-final against Gabon on Thursday, November 13, in Rabat, Morocco.
The 28-year-old was reacting to Nigeria’s shaky World Cup qualifying campaign that saw the Eagles finish second in Group C behind South Africa’s Bafana Bafana.
“We’ve managed to rescue ourselves from the dead,” Iwobi told Tidesports source.
We know we have the players and the abilities to compete against any other country in the world.”
The Fulham star pointed to Nigeria’s star power, highlighting African Footballer of the Year winners Ademola Lookman and Victor Osimhen as proof of the squad’s quality.
“We have last year’s African best player (Ademola Lookman), the year before that (Victor Osimhen),” he said.
“It’ll be a shame if we don’t make it, but we have a lot of confidence. We just have to prove it to ourselves.”
Nigeria’s path to the United States, Canada and Mexico has been turbulent, with two coaches departing during the early stages of qualifying before Éric Chelle steadied the ship to steer the Super Eagles into November’s CAF playoffs.
Four nations from the continent – Nigeria, Cameroon, DR Congo and Gabon – will vie for a solitary spot to compete in next March’s inter-confederation playoffs, with a view to joining the already nine qualified African nations at the Finals.
It would mark Iwobi’s second appearance at the World Cup Finals and the Super Eagles’ first since the 2018 edition of the competition.
Back then, Iwobi featured in all three games as Nigeria was knocked out in the group stage.
The Chief Executive Officer(CEO) and Publisher of the Atlantic Bell Online medium, Mr. Celestine Ogolo has advised sports writers in Nigeria to diversify in sports writing and not to concentrate on football reporting alone.
The Deputy National President of Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) Mr. Bonny Nyong has expressed commitment to support sports development and move SWAN forward.
