The Golden Eaglets of Nigeria misses the chance to defend their West African Football Union B tournament after losing the final to the Baby Elephants of Ivory Coast 2-3 at the Stade de Kegue, Togo on Monday.
Ivory Coast, who had defeated the Golden Eaglets 1-0 in the group stage of the championship, started the game on the front foot and were by far the better side of the teams from the kick-off.
Sindou Kone, Abdrumane Konate and Seydou Traore gave the Baby Elephants a three-goal lead before two late goals from substitute Ahmed Abdulahi ensured a nervy finish for the Ivorians in Lome.
Sindou Kone put Ivory Coast ahead in the 15th minute after he jumped ahead of everyone to nod in from a corner. Abdrumane made it 2-0 for Ivory Coast 13 minutes into the restart, with Eaglets coach Fatai Amoo responding with three quick substitutions as he brought on Ahmed for Chijioke Osuji, Samson Ogunmola for Samuel Akere, with Emmanuel Papo, who grabbed the winner against Burkina Faso in the semi-finals, replaced by Oluwatomiwa Kolawole.
Substitute Seydou scored the third goal of the night for the Ivorians in the 84th minute to put the game out of the reach of the Eaglets.
However, the Fatai Amoo led boys pulled two late goals back through Ahmed in added time gave the Eaglets a lifeline, but it was too little too late as the Baby Elephants held on to claim the trophy.
Despite the loss, the Eaglets are through to the 2021 U-17 Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco in July. The Eaglets recorded just one win in four games, a performance they will be hoping to improve on at the U-17 AFCON