Africa looking good to retain title

It was the Pharaohs of Egypt that set the tone for Africa’s charge for the coveted trophy with a breath-taking 1-1 draw against one of the tournament’s favourite, Brazil in the opening match of Group F. Mali is the only African representative that failed to qualify for the next round following their 2-0 defeats in […]

It was the Pharaohs of Egypt that set the tone for Africa’s charge for the coveted trophy with a breath-taking 1-1 draw against one of the tournament’s favourite, Brazil in the opening match of Group F.

Mali is the only African representative that failed to qualify for the next round following their 2-0 defeats in the hands of Korea Republic, host Colombia and France in the final group game on Friday.

Of the three African countries left to battle for honours in the youth championship, Egypt and Nigeria moved on convincingly but the same cannot be said of the young Lions of Cameroon who lost 0-1 to Portugal and had to work extra hard to beat Uruguay 1-0 in the final group match to book a place in the last 16.

After holding Brazil to a 1-1 draw, the Young Pharaohs of Egypt went on to record a slim 1-0 victory over Panama in the second match before going on to demolish Australia 4-0 in the last group game.

Free-scoring Flying Eagles are obviously the most convincing of the three with their 5-0 spanking of debutants Guatemala and another 5-0 humiliation of Croatia in their second group match which automatically qualified them for the second round.

Thus, the final group match between Nigeria and Saudi Arabia only served to decide who topped their group as the Saudis had also won two of their group matches.

So far, the countries representing the continent of Africa have shown ability to do well in the championship as demonstrated in their performances so far.

“We had a great celebration because we were in a very tough and equal group. The boys gave all they had against Uruguay, and that was the key to the victory,” said Cameroon coach Martin Ndtoungou.