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The age-long soccer rivalry between Nigeria and West African neighbours, Ghana, is expected to be reignited when the two countries’ ARS female teams lock horns today in one of the quarter-finals matches slated for the Legacy Pitch of the National Stadium, Lagos.
Nigeria sits on top of Group A after bagging the maximum nine points and have a 10-goal advantage. The Nigerian girls defeated Kenya in the opening match on Monday at the Agege Township Stadium and then followed up an 8-0 spanking of Gabon, before winning their last Group match against Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) yesterday at the main bowl of the National Stadium with a lone goal.
Ghana, who are the defending champions of the female category, lost their group opener by a lone goal to Chad but reclaimed glory after handing Zambia a 4-1 defeat in their second group game. They booked a place in the quarter finals with a comprehensive 5-0 victory over Burkina Faso.
In the Male quarter-finals, also today, Nigeria will come up against Chad, who booked a late ticket to this stage by grinding out a barren draw with Burkina Faso in an ill-tempered Group B final match, which produced two yellow cards.
The Nigerian lads produced top-class performances in their group matches, amassing seven points with five goals advantage. Beginning with a-two nil defeat of DRC in the group and tournament opener, they went on to defeat Rwanda 3-0 in the second group match before settling for a draw with Malawi in the last group match played today inside the main bowl of the National Stadium.
This year’s edition of the ARS kicked off Monday at the Agege Township Stadium with host Nigeria recording respective victories in the opening group matches against Kenya female and DRC male teams.
The Airtel Rising Stars Africa U-17 soccer tournament is a unique pan-African initiative of Airtel Africa designed to create a pool of talents to feed the national football teams of African countries.
•Photo by Rukevwe Onoharigho shows a match in progress during one of the group games at Agege Stadium.
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