FIFA U-17 World Cup On
Break
Francis Ehikhaese, Ijebu Ode
The
on-going FIFA U-17 football championships, which are featuring matches in eight
centres across Nigeria, have gone on a break after seizing 36 matches.
Switzerland, one of the three countries making their debut in the championship
beat one of the favourites, Brazil, to qualify for the group of 16.
Out of the 24 countries in the competition, 8 teams have dropped out and are
headed back to their various countries.
Brazil and Japan crashed out in group B, Lagos, Honduras was the weeping child
in group A; where Nigeria, Argentina, and Germany soared.
In group D Enugu, only Costa Rica dropped while Turkey, Burkina Faso and New
Zealand scaled through.
Gambia and Netherlands crashed out in group C while Algeria also failed in group
F just as Malawi could not go through in group E.
In all, a total of 94 goals were scored from 36 games in the tournament with
group A and B producing a whooping 36 goals.
Though Brazil, Netherlands and United Arab Emirates were tied on all rounds of
considerations with 3 goals for, 4 against and three points each, in FIFA’s
consideration of the qualifier for the best losers tickets, Brazil failed to
scale through despite FIFA’s fair play rules and considering the number of
yellow cards and red cards received by the teams during their matches.
Fixtures
Here now are the fixtures for the round of sixteen of the competition:
On the 4th of November, Argentina will meet Colombia in Ijebu-Ode while in
Enugu,Turkey will take on United Arab Emirates,
In Lagos,Switzerland will take on Germany. In Kaduna, Italy will take on U.S.A.
as Burkina Faso faces Spain in Kano.
Iran and Uruguay will play in Calabar while in Bauchi Stadium, Mexico and Korea
Republic take the pitch.
In Abuja, Nigeria will take on NewZealand.
Yinka
