Junior Eagles of Mali defeated flying eagles of Nigeria in the first semi final of 2019 CAF AFCON U20 tournament hosted by Niger Republic.
First half of the game ended goaless. But in the second half, Mali scored the first goal through Mahamadou Traore. Four minutes to the end of the game (86th minute), flying eagles equalised via a controversial cum seemingly offside goal from Paschal Durugbor.
As both sides couldn’t get the winning goal before the end of 90th minute, the game went into 30 minutes extra time.
After 120 minutes, the scorelines stayed at 1-1, hence spot kicks was imperative to get the first finalist.
During penalty shooting, Boubacar Traore of Mali and Valentine Ozornwafor of Nigeria both missed the first set of spots kicks. Ikouwem Udo, Lassana N’Diaye, Jamil Muhammad, Hadji Drame, Maxwell Effiom, and Abdoulaye Diaby all converted their penalties before Ozornwafor missed Nigeria 5th and final penalty kick.
El Bilal Toure of Mali scored the deciding spot kick to secure the final spot of the tournament for Mali
Mali will now meet the winner of the second semi final game between Senegal and South Africa while flying eagles will play the loser of the same game in the third fourth place playoff game
