FIFA U-17 World Cup: Mali battle with Spain for final ticket

Lassana N'Diaye of Mali

REIGNING African champions, the Eaglets of Mali are set to add a chapter to African football as they battle with La Rojita of Spain tonight for a ticket in the final of the ongoing FIFA U-17 World Cup in India.

Interestingly, Mali will become the third African country that had played in two successful U-17 World Cup finals after Nigeria and Ghana should they win tonight.

In the first semi-final, four-time winners, Brazil face England at 17:00 local time at the Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan Stadium, Kolkata, while the clash between Mali and Spain at 20:00 local time will still be played at the Dr DY Patil Stadium, Navi Mumbai.

The world soccer governing body, FIFA had to move the first semi-final to Kolkata, as a result of the pitch conditions at Guwahati’s Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium, which has been affected by severe rainfall over the past few days.

The Eaglets who stopped two-time world champions, Ghana’s Black Starlets in the quarter-final would have to fire from all cylinders tonight to stop the European side that also possessed a deadly attack having scored 12 goals so far and conceded four.

Lassana N’Diaye leads Mali’s goal chart with five goals out the 15 so far with six against and he is expected to reignite his devastating form against Spain alongside Hadji Drame with three goals in the kitty to give Africans cause to smile.

Perhaps, the Spaniards would have to pray against rain as the Africans strenghth also lies in playing in water-logged pitch according to the handler of the Eaglets, Jonas Kokou Komla.

“We played our best in conditions in which it was raining. We tried to master the conditions and the team that committed the minimum fouls won the match.

“Our players are well conditioned for these conditions – when we played in difficult countries, we trained in the rain and we modified our strategy and we also tried that our mind remains on our head.

“We habituated that kind of weather in Ethiopia where we played in very similar conditions,” Komla had said after the fall of Ghana.

Meanwhile, Mali, the only surving African team in the cadet championship it will be recalled, lost in the 2015 final to Nigeria’s Golden Eaglets, who did not make it to this year’s edition after being stopped by Sudan at the qualifying series.