Nigeria to play South Africa in the semi final of the U13 Africa Championship

Defending champions of the Nestle Milo Under 13 African football championship, Nigeria defeated Kenya 6-0 in their second group match to qualify for the semi-finals. Nigeria will take on South Africa at 11am local time in Accra in the second match this Friday. Hosts Ghana will battle Sierra Leone at 9am. The final match will take place later in the evening. Nigeria opened their campaign in the competition scoring the fastest goal of the tournament as they dispatched Sierra Leone 3-0 in a Group B match played on Thursday at the El-Wak Sports Stadium in Accra, Ghana. Nigerians represented by St Stephen Primary School, Lagos Island, Lagos were the pre- match favourites and lived up to the billing at the venue filled up by pupils from different Ghanaian schools. Toheeb Oyelakin opened scoring in the fifth minute and this was followed by the goals from Adeyemi Ashafa also in the first half and Lukman Azeez who sealed victory forthe country in the second half. Nigeria lost a penalty kick which was blown over the bar during the first half. The Nigeria-Sierra Leone game was the second for the day as the teams played in round robin format within each group. Hosts Ghana opened the rain of goals with the 5-0 win over a hapless South African team. The coach of the Nigerian team Ogunnaike Oludayo attributed their victory to discipline. He said, “We are very satisfied with the outing. Hard work, confidence and understanding of themselves helped our players. The kids have become very bold and confident and that played out today.” Nigeria was billed to face Kenya in their second match of the day as at press time while the Ghanaians were scheduled to play against Liberia. The top two teams from the group of three teams will go into the semi final stage Friday morning before the final match in the evening. The competition will be rounded off with a dinner session for the teams at the Holiday Inn before their departure on Saturday. Nigeria won the maiden edition of the competition held two years ago in South Africa.