Senegal makes history qualifies for first CAF U17 finals

▪︎Beats former Champions Burkina Faso 5-4 on penalties in the Semifinals.

▪︎Souleymane Alio’s miss sends out Burkina Faso in attempted 4th appearance at the finals.

A vital penalty kick by Souleymane Alio the Burkina Faso attacker whose two goals sent out the CAF U17 Defending Champions, Lions of Cameroon in 2-1 victory on 7th May on Sunday at the 1956 Stadium, Anaba in Algeria sent the the Junior Stallions of Burkina Faso out of contention for the coveted trophy in a 4-5 loss after 1-1 at full time.

Eniola Olatunji, reporting for Patmos Media Line, said Alio’s penalty was the last kick that ended the shootouts.

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According to him, tears rolled freely down the cheeks of the young lads from Mali who fought the battle of their life to shock out the tough Senegalese side that were yet to concede a goal until this match.

Abdou Aziz Fall had collected a pass from D. Ndiaye to register the first goal for Senegal in the 16th minute before Arouna Quattara’s Moss Code pass found Rachide Quedrago who plays in the Burkina Faso Attack with his brother, Abdou and the equalizer came in the 83rd minute.

A Legendary Radio Commentator who trained me, late Earnest Okonkwo had said “goals motivate players’ energy and galvanize vociferous support from the stands” which almost confused the never say die Junior Teranga Lions of Senegal that tried to prove Lions, no matter what are kings of the jungle.

Thus Burkina Faso lost an opportunity for an emphatic win over Senegal that had never appeared in the last four but always fall off at group stages both in 2011 and 2019 as against the Stallions who were Champions in 2011; twice Runners-up in 1999 and 2001 and winning the Bronze in 2009.

Senegal is from the same zone as Burkina Faso and are therefore used to each other at various levels. Burkina Faso and Senegal met only once at this level on 11th January 2011 and Burkina Faso won 3-2.

Senegal won all their 4 matches but Burkina Faso lost one of the 3 matches played so far. Senegal with a clean sheet meaning not conceding a single goal in the tournament has scored 12 goals, the highest by any team.

Senegal had beaten DRC 1-0; humiliated hosts Algeria 3-0; devoured debutant Somalia by same margin and dismissed South Africa by a whopping 5-0 which is the highest scored in a single match in the Quarterfinals.

Burkina Faso that had to play only two games in Group C because South Sudan was disqualified, first lost to rivals Mali also from the WAFU zone by a lone goal; bashed defending Champions Cameroon 2-1 and shocked most decorated U17 team in Africa, Golden Eaglets of Nigeria 2-1 in the Quarters.

The overall stats so far for the two teams made the match look like a David versus Goliath encounter with us considering Senegal first in all presentations here in Shots at Goal 95-47; on target 26-16; ball possession 55-39.6%; passes on an average of 367-275.3 meaning in both possession and passes Senegal will surely dominate the game; fouls 63-41 meaning that Senegal is more aggressive; yellow cards 4-5; offside calls 10-3 meaning that Burkina Faso needed to watch their offside traps and Corner kicks 36-19 meaning that Senegal loves to pile pressure on opponents.

Senegal will meet the winner of the second semifinal between Morocco and Mali to be played Sunday night 14th May at the Nelson Mandela Stadium, Algiers on Friday at 2200 hours while Burkina Faso will struggle for a second Bronze in their history in the 3rd Place match on Thursday at 2000 hours.