Cote d'Ivoire rally late to eliminate Cameroon

Defending champions Cote d'Ivoire came from a goal down in a late rally to beat Cameroon 2-1 in a thrilling contest of two enterprising sides at the CAF U17 championship in Niamey.

The loss was Cameroon's second in as many matches and means that the young lions can no longer make the last four and also miss out on a place at the FIFA U17 World Cup in Chile later this year.

Cameroon went ahead with only two minutes on the clock through a neat finish by Christian Jol Bayemi.

The young lions looked set to hold on to their slim advantage in a tight second half during which they missed several opportunities to add to their lead.

Captain Martin Hongla had a beautiful free-kick well saved by Ivorian keeper Mohamed Ouattara and Jean Paul Atangana had his goal bound header cleared off the line on 80minutes; an opportunity that could have restored Cameroon's lead which was cancelled out by substitute Fokem Achille's 77th minute fine tap-in courtesy of fine runs by Moise Sakava and Jules Frederick Njike.

Buoyed by their equalizer, the Ivoirians poured forward in numbers and their pressure paid off as Cameroon skipper Hongla was penalised for a foul in the box, the resultant penalty converted by Idrissa Doumbia with six minutes before full time.

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 from two games. But the young lions crashed out of Niger 2015 as they have no point from their two matches. They face South Africa's Amajimbos in their final group 'B' fixture while Mali and Cote d'Ivoire meet in the other group game.