Battle lines drawn for Africa U-17 qualifiers

The seven places for the 8th Africa U-17 Championships to be hosted in Algeria next year will be decided this weekend after the second leg matches of the final round.

The centre of attraction will be in Banjul, where the Baby Scorpions of Gambia play host to Ghana’s Black Starlets. The Scorpions must overturn a 1-3 deficit from the first leg to reach their second finals in four years, which will also see them avenge the painful loss suffered by their seniors, Darling Scorpions, to their Ghanaian counterparts for the African Youth Championship.

The failure of the Baby Scorpions will serve a recipe for disaster to Gambian youth football, gradually carving a niche for itself.  In the build up this weekend’s clash, the Gambians have been preparing feverishly for the make-or-break tie.  Scorpions head coach Belgian Paul Put has been drafted in to assist Egyptian Tarik Siagy in preparing the team for the final bout.

Elsewhere,  the Junior Warriors of Zimbabwe will be seeking to complete a double over Angola after a 3-2 win from the leg for a place at the finals. The quartet; Rwanda, Malawi, Niger and Guinea will be involved in dicey home duels against Burkina Faso, Namibia, Cote d’Ivoire and Guinea respectively.
All four teams lost by a goal margin during the first leg fixtures.

 At the Ahmadou Ahidjo Stadium in Yaounde, the Indomitable Cubs of Cameroon are highly tipped to complete a double over Eritrea after a 2-0 win Asmara, a fortnight ago.  Cameroon, champions of the 2003 edition hosted in Swaziland have missed out on the last two editions and will be seeking to make a claim as a strong force in cadet football by beating Eritrea to seal qualification.