Mali U17 men’s team beat Congo 3-0 to progress to the semi-final of the U17 Africa Cup of Nations tournament yesterday.
Goals from Ange Tia, Mamadou Doumbia and Mohammed Barry were enough for Mali to make it to the round of four and secure World Cup qualification.
Mali who are two-time U17 Afcon winners, will be seeking to win their third title. The West Africans will meet with Morocco in the semi-final of the Afcon tournament to be played on Sunday.
However, Mali head coach, Soumaila Coulibaly told Cafonline that he was happy the team achieved its first target by qualifying for the World Cup now the focus will be on winning the Afcon title.
“The first objective was to do everything to qualify for the World Cup and now this is achieved. We will now prepare for the semi-final and then seek to win the title. Once again, we will give a good account of ourselves to win the title,” said the coach.
Meanwhile, the tactician praised the team for playing according to plan and collecting the three points against Congo.
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“We watched Congo against Senegal and Algeria and we just needed to impose our style of play. We did well, but we still need to work because we are yet to reach the technical levels that I would want us to,” noted the coach.
Senegal will now face Burkina Faso who knocked out Nigeria after a 1-2 victory in the semi-final.
The other semifinal match will Mali’s clash with Morocco for a place in the final. Mali have also qualified to the U17 world cup to be staged in Peru, later this year.
