WAFU-B U-20: Ivory Coast and Niger claim wins to kick off Group B

Group B began play on July 11 at the Prampram Centre of Excellence in Ghana on the second day of the WAFU Zone-B U-20 Boys Cup tournament. The Elephants of Ivory Coast more or less dominated their match against neighbors Burkina Faso, and were rewarded for their efficiency with a final score of two goals to one in their favor.

The first ten minutes were largely dominated by the Elephants, who monopolized possession in the Burkinabe half of the field. The Ivorians, however, came up against a well-organized defense, which finally gave way in the final moments of the first half to a goal from Yaya Tapé, the Ivorian number 7, who would be named Man of the Match.

In the second half, the Ivorians returned with the same attacking intention, and managed to break away thanks to new substitute Namory Keita in the 75th minute. But the Stallions, very enterprising in the final twenty minutes, reduced the score with a goal from Salif Simporé in the 80th minute.

In a press conference, Ivorian coach Younès Zerdouk expressed his satisfaction with his team’s performance, as the match’s objectives had been achieved:

“It was a match where we knew there would be a physical battle, so we put things in place to combat that. It was exactly the match we expected. But the most important thing is that the players believe in this vision,” he said, before looking ahead to the upcoming matches. He continued: “We’ll try to retrieve the video to analyze, to see what worked, to replay it, and to see what we can improve,” he concluded.

However, things didn’t go well for the Stallions, according to their coach Bouraïma Kaboré:

“Our game plan didn’t work because we had a poor start to the match. According to the game plan, we had to stay solid, keep the ball as soon as we won it, and get forward as quickly as possible. And unfortunately, every time we won the ball, we lost it immediately. We didn’t have any real chances up front. We lost, it’s true, but we still had a say,” lamented the Burkinabe coach.

In the other match of the day, Niger won 1-0 against Togo.

EDITOR NOTE: This article is translated from the original written in French by Hilary Christelle Tolo Kpadonou for Pan-Africa Football.