Nigeria will not feature in this year’s U17 World Cup after wasteful Golden Eaglets fell 2-1 to Burkina Faso in an entertaining U17 AFCON quarterfinal clash in Algiers.
Burkina Faso thus completed the quartet of teams to reach the semifinal of the U17 AFCON.
Senegal, Mali and Morocco are the other semifinalists and have by this also advanced to the World Cup later this year.
It was a sweet revenge for Burkina Faso, who in June in Ghana lost 2-1 to Nigeria in the final of the WAFU B qualifiers for the U17 AFCON.
Defensive blunders combined with poor finishing robbed five-time world champions Nigeria another shot at global glory.
The Junior Stallions raced into a 2-0 lead courtesy of Aboubacar Camara.
First, he found the back of the net from a rebound just before half time.
He then completed his brace on 57 minutes from the penalty spot after a goal-bound Burkinabe player was fouled inside the box.
However, Abubakar Abdullahi gave Nigeria a glimmer of hope midway through the second half when he pulled a goal back with a simple tap in.
It proved to be too little too late as the Eaglets were again on the night wasteful and without inventiveness in front of goal.
They were visibly not in the right mood before the match. The Coach should have made necessary changes of players, strategy and tactics but did not. The match they beat RSA cannot win this one for them. The Stallions warned them out. It was a fitness test.