Senegal to face Morocco in AFCON U17 final in Algeria

• Senegal beat Burkina Faso 5-4 on penalties
• Morocco also won their final against Mali on penalties
• The final will be played on Friday in Algiers

Senegal and Morocco have both qualified for Friday’s final at the U17 Africa Cup of Nations after they won their respective semi-final duels on penalties on Sunday.

The two sides are playing the final for the first time ever. In both their previous participations, Senegal have never gone beyond the group stages while Morocco’s best ever return in their previous two participations was a semi-final exit when they hosted the tournament in 2013.

All the four sides in the semi-finals had already qualified for the FIFA World Cup and now the battle has been left to find a new champion, with holders Cameroon having been eliminated in the group stages.

In the first semi-final played in Annaba, Senegal edged out Burkina Faso 5-4 in a nervous shootout and will now look to follow in the footsteps of their locally based players who won the Africa Nations Championship (CHAN) in Algeria in February.

Amara Diouf made amends  

Skipper Amara Diouf made amends for himself, scoring the fifth and winning penalty for the Senegalese, after missing a regulation time spot kick. Burkina Faso’s Souleymane Alio sent his kick crashing against the crossbar to hand the ticket to Senegal.

Fallou Diouf, Pierre Dorival, Ibrahima Sory and Mamadou Sawane scored for Senegal then Diouf stepped up for the winner.

Before Alio’s kick that went against the bar, Emmanuel Ouedraogo who had scored the late equalizer slotted home for Burkina Faso with Arouna Ouattara, Idrissa Sore and Landry Yameogo scoring the next three.

Abdou Aziz Fall had given the Teranga Cubs the lead in the 15th minute. The midfielder slotted home with a low shot inside the box after Papa Ndiaye and Mamadou Sadio had seen their shots from inside the box brilliantly saved by the Burkina keeper Isidore Traore. Early in the second half, Senegal had a chance to seal the match but Diouf, who is the tournament’s top scorer with five goals saw his penalty hit the outside of the bar.

Burkina Faso gave a fight and equalized six minutes to time through Ouedraogo’s brilliant drive from the edge of the box.

Morocco goalkeeper the hero 

Meanwhile in the other semi-final, Goalkeeper Taha Benrhozil was the hero, saving three of eight penalties as Morocco also progressed to the final with a 6-5 victory over Mali.

The match went into penalties after a 0-0 stalemate in regulation time.

Benrhozil saved Mali’s last two kicks of the first five, keeping out Ibrahim Kanate and skipper Ibrahima Diarra’s efforts to put his side back into the game.

In sudden death, he saved Gaoussou Kone’s effort while teammate Fouad Zahouani slotted home his effort to hand Mali the ticket.

The two sides had played to a 3-3 draw in the first five kicks. Morocco had lost two penalties, Abdel Hamid Maali striking wide while Smail Bakhty’s effort was saved.

For Mali, Angel Tia, Ousmane Simpara and Sekou Kone had scored. Morocco’s Mohamed Radouane had scored the first before the two misses. But after keeper Benrhozil had made the two saves, Mohamed Zine El Abidine and skipper Abdelhamid Ait Boudlal responded scoring the next two to send the shoot-out into sudden death.

Mamadou Doumbia and Souleymane Sanogo scored the first two for Mali while Mohamed Amine Katiba and Hamza El Motaouakkel scored the first two for Mali.