2015 U17 African Football Championship: Cameroon booted out

The Junior lions of Cameroon have been eliminated by Cote d'Ivoire 2-1 in the ongoing 2015 u17 African Football Championship in Niamey, Benin.

The defending champions Cote d'Ivoire came from a goal down in their last encounter to beat Cameroon 2-1 in a thrilling contest that saw two choices in the Championship.

The loss was Cameroon's second in as many matches, which therefore means the young lions can no longer make the last encounter with South Africa thereby missing out on a place at the FIFA U17 World Cup in Chile later this year.

During the encounter with Cote d`Ivoire, the young lions looked set to hold on to their slim advantage but the second half looked more promising as they missed several opportunities to add to their lead.

At the 80th minute, the cadet lions Captain Martin Hongla exercised a beautiful free-kick but was saved by Ivorian keeper Mohamed Ouattara ,but Jean Paul Atangana of Cameroon had his goal bound header cleared off the line ,an opportunity that could have restored Cameroon's lead.

The equalizer by the Ivoirians motivated them to exhibit a brilliant show which in no time fetched them a penalty just six minutes to full time from a fault committed by Cameroon skipper Hongla, leading the score board to 2-1 in favour of the Ivoirians.

Cameroon then pressed hard and successive chances could not be converted as the Ivoirians stood resolute to collect all points and increase their tally to four points in two games.

The young lions have been crashed out of Niger 2015 with no point from their two matches. They will face South Africa in their final group 'B' game while Mali and Cote d'Ivoire will all throw weights in other group encounters.