Kwadwo Opoku and Samuel Mone Andoh of Ghana celebrates during the 2017 Under 17 Africa Cup of Nations Finals Ghana and Niger at the Port Gentil Stadium, Gabon on 24 May 2017 \u00a9Muzi Ntombela\/BackpagePix<\/p>\n
\n
Ghana will come up against\u00a0defending champions Mali in the final of the 2017 African U17 Championship on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Mali set up a final clash with the Black Starlets after a\u00a0hard earned victory over\u00a0Guinea.\u00a0 Les Aiglonnets beat the Guinea 2-0 on penalties to reach their second consecutive final.<\/p>\n
Mali won the last edition of the tournament two years ago in Niger.<\/p>\n
The Black Starlets are confident of claiming the title for the first time since 1999, having already secured qualification for the World Cup in India for the first time in a decade.<\/p>\n
But they\u00a0are no more the bookmakers favourite\u00a0to lift the trophy as a result of the sudden\u00a0decline in performance. After demolishing Cameroon 4-0 and annihilating host Gabon in the first two games, they\u00a0have struggled in their last two games against Guinea and Niger failing to score in neither.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Black Starlets have been highly profligate.\u00a0They fluffed\u00a0several scoring opportunities\u00a0in Wednesday’s semifinal against Niger and were lucky\u00a0to sail through via\u00a0penalty shoot-out,\u00a0according to head coach Paa Kwesi Fabin.\u00a0<\/p>\n
”We have given people of Port Gentil really entertainment, it was a very tactical match and I want to congratulate Niger for giving us a very good match,” Fabin said in a post-match interview<\/p>\n
”Though we had chances, we missed them up but we are lucky\u00a0to go through on penalties, we would go back into the drawing and correct the mistakes before heading for the final on Sunday.<\/p>\n
”We scored nine goals in the first two matches and we couldn’t score in the last two matches.<\/p>\n
”I wished I can be crowned winners of this tournament now because I don’t have any preference between Mali and Guinea.”<\/p>\n
Coach Paa Kwesi Fabin\u2019s men need\u00a0to produce\u00a0their\u00a0“best\u00a0performance of all time” to win the tournament.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kwadwo Opoku and Samuel Mone Andoh of Ghana celebrates during the 2017 Under 17 Africa Cup of Nations Finals Ghana and Niger at the Port Gentil Stadium, Gabon on 24 May 2017 \u00a9Muzi Ntombela\/BackpagePix Ghana will come up against\u00a0defending champions Mali in the final of the 2017 African U17 Championship on Sunday. Mali set up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-393932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-business"],"yoast_head":"\n
Mali stand in way of Ghana's first U-17 trophy in 18 years - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/06\/02\/mali-stand-in-way-of-ghanas-first-u-17-trophy-in-18-years\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Mali stand in way of Ghana's first U-17 trophy in 18 years - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Kwadwo Opoku and Samuel Mone Andoh of Ghana celebrates during the 2017 Under 17 Africa Cup of Nations Finals Ghana and Niger at the Port Gentil Stadium, Gabon on 24 May 2017 \u00a9Muzi Ntombela\/BackpagePix Ghana will come up against\u00a0defending champions Mali in the final of the 2017 African U17 Championship on Sunday. Mali set up […]\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/06\\\/02\\\/mali-stand-in-way-of-ghanas-first-u-17-trophy-in-18-years\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/06\\\/02\\\/mali-stand-in-way-of-ghanas-first-u-17-trophy-in-18-years\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"Mali stand in way of Ghana’s first U-17 trophy in 18 years\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-06-02T22:35:17+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/06\\\/02\\\/mali-stand-in-way-of-ghanas-first-u-17-trophy-in-18-years\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":349,\"commentCount\":0,\"articleSection\":[\"Business\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/06\\\/02\\\/mali-stand-in-way-of-ghanas-first-u-17-trophy-in-18-years\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/06\\\/02\\\/mali-stand-in-way-of-ghanas-first-u-17-trophy-in-18-years\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/06\\\/02\\\/mali-stand-in-way-of-ghanas-first-u-17-trophy-in-18-years\\\/\",\"name\":\"Mali stand in way of Ghana's first U-17 trophy in 18 years - Ghanamma.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-06-02T22:35:17+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/06\\\/02\\\/mali-stand-in-way-of-ghanas-first-u-17-trophy-in-18-years\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/\",\"name\":\"Ghanamma.com\",\"description\":\"News In Ghana - Latest Ghana News Headlines\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Mali stand in way of Ghana's first U-17 trophy in 18 years - Ghanamma.com","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/06\/02\/mali-stand-in-way-of-ghanas-first-u-17-trophy-in-18-years\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"Mali stand in way of Ghana's first U-17 trophy in 18 years - Ghanamma.com","twitter_description":"Kwadwo Opoku and Samuel Mone Andoh of Ghana celebrates during the 2017 Under 17 Africa Cup of Nations Finals Ghana and Niger at the Port Gentil Stadium, Gabon on 24 May 2017 \u00a9Muzi Ntombela\/BackpagePix Ghana will come up against\u00a0defending champions Mali in the final of the 2017 African U17 Championship on Sunday. Mali set up […]","twitter_creator":"@ghanamma","twitter_site":"@ghanamma","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/06\/02\/mali-stand-in-way-of-ghanas-first-u-17-trophy-in-18-years\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/06\/02\/mali-stand-in-way-of-ghanas-first-u-17-trophy-in-18-years\/"},"author":{"name":"","@id":""},"headline":"Mali stand in way of Ghana’s first U-17 trophy in 18 years","datePublished":"2017-06-02T22:35:17+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/06\/02\/mali-stand-in-way-of-ghanas-first-u-17-trophy-in-18-years\/"},"wordCount":349,"commentCount":0,"articleSection":["Business"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/06\/02\/mali-stand-in-way-of-ghanas-first-u-17-trophy-in-18-years\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/06\/02\/mali-stand-in-way-of-ghanas-first-u-17-trophy-in-18-years\/","url":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/06\/02\/mali-stand-in-way-of-ghanas-first-u-17-trophy-in-18-years\/","name":"Mali stand in way of Ghana's first U-17 trophy in 18 years - Ghanamma.com","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-06-02T22:35:17+00:00","author":{"@id":""},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/06\/02\/mali-stand-in-way-of-ghanas-first-u-17-trophy-in-18-years\/"]}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/","name":"Ghanamma.com","description":"News In Ghana - Latest Ghana News Headlines","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393932\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}