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By Anthony Nlebem.
Following their 2-1 victory over Cameroon in their last group stage match of the U-17 Africa Cup of Nations on Sunday, head coach of Burkina Faso’s U-17 team Brahima Traore has said the team is now focused on their quarter-final game against the Golden Eaglets.
The 49-year-old tactician praised his side for their resilience and doggedness in their game against Cameroon which earned them a spot in the last eight.
“When we conceded the first goal, we just changed our system and tactics to be more attacking. We put pressure on them and scored the two goals,” Traore told CAFonline in a post-match comment.
“We worked hard and had a good fighting spirit. We went 1-0 down but never gave up. We had confidence in ourselves and I am happy with the desire shown by the players.”
He added that his target was to clinch a World Cup ticket and was confident his boys can beat Nigeria.
“We had two objectives in this tournament; first to get to the semi-finals and then to fight for the title. We will prepare well for Nigeria to enable us to get to the semis and earn the World Cup ticket.”
Burkina Faso will face a tough task when they play Nigeria in Algiers on Thursday.
En route to the quarter-finals, the Eaglets pipped Zambia 1-0 in their opening match, but lost by the same margin to Morocco in their second game, and defeated South Africa 3-2 in an interesting five-goal thriller in Constantine.
The five-time world champions would need to overcome their opponent to book a semi-finals ticket to represent Africa at the U-17 World Cup tournament set to take place later this year.