Ghana failed to secured a place in the final of the 2022 Wafu Zone-B Cup of Nations following a 1-0 defeat to neighbours Burkina Faso in the second semifinal at Cape Coast Stadium Tuesday night.
The result means the Black Starlets have also missed a ticket to the 2023 U-17 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) to be played in Algeria – for the second time in a row, having failed to qualify for the last edition in 2019.
The Algeria 2023 U-17 Afcon will serve as the qualifiers for the Fifa U-17 World Cup as the top four sides in the competition will qualify to represent Africa at the global tournament scheduled for Peru.
Burkina Faso thus line up a final clash with Nigeria’s Golden Eaglets who secured a 3-1 come-from-behind victory against Cote d’Ivoire in the first semifinal match of the day.
The Baby Stallions celebrated wildly after overcoming the stubborn Black Starlets.
A second-half penalty converted by Ousmane Camara was all the Burkinabes needed to defeat coach Paa Kwasi Fabin’s boys to advance to the final.
The first half of the match was balanced with the Ghanaians showing more desire to win but were left undone by their unimpressive shooting at goal.
Black Starlets captain Collins Agyemang’s clumsy challenge on Camara in the box resulted in a penalty and the striker picked himself up to send Ghanaian keeper the wrong way in the 65th minute.
Despite a late foray of attacks on the Burkina Faso goal area later in the game, the defenders held on to secure their progress.
Nigeria and Burkina Faso will now face off in the final on Friday to determine the kings of U1-7 in Wafu Zone-B.
