The stage is set for an epic soccer battle in this year’s U-17 AFCON quarterfinal match between two West African nations, Nigeria and Burkina Faso.

The match is scheduled to take place on Thursday, May 11, 2023, at Nelson Mandela Stadium, Algiers,by 8:00 p.m. Nigerian time.

Senegal, South Africa, Mali, Congo, Morocco, and host Algeria are the other quarterfinalists in this year’s CAF U-17 football championship.

Nigeria’s match against Burkina Faso is the last in the series of quarterfinal matches.

Senegal will play South Africa on Wednesday, May 10, 2023, at Nelson Mandela Stadium in Algiers, while Morocco traded tackles with host Algeria later in the evening at Mohamed Hamlaoui Stadium in Constantine, Algeria.

See Nelson Mandela stadium, Algiers, where the Golden Eaglets will tackle Burkina Faso in Thursday's quarter – final.
Time is 8pm Nigeria time. pic.twitter.com/BDW3ijholG

— Francis Achi (@totorimaster) May 10, 2023

Mali will face Congo early on Thursday evening at the 19 May 1956 Stadium in Annaba.

Nigeria and Burkina Faso are no strangers to CAF football championships, particularly at the U-17 level.

Nigeria’s U-17 football team, popularly known as the Golden Eaglets, are two-time continental champions in 2001 and 2007, and three-time runners-up in 1987, 2001, and 2009.

Burkina Faso had only won the continental championship once, in 2011, and were runners-up once, in 1999.

In the current championship, Nigeria recorded two wins against Group B opponents Zambia and South Africa, while Burkina Faso recorded only a win in the last match of Group C against defending champion Cameroon but lost the opening match to group leaders Mali.

It is no surprise that the coach of Burkina Faso, Brahima Traore, is already talking tough about overcoming the Golden Eaglets in the quarterfinal encounter.

Nduka Ugbade, the Golden Eaglets coach, and the coach of Burkina Faso, Brahima Traore, are familiar foes.

The quarter-final game in Algiers will be a recap of the WAFU Zone B Championship Final match, where Coach Nduka Ugbade’s Eaglets defeated Coach Brahima Traore’s Burkinabe side 2-1 to win the sub-regional football championship in 2022.

What is making the game more exciting is the fact that the two coaches are proponents of tighter spaces in the field of play.

“The quaterfinal matches will be very hard nuts to crack beacuse that is the step that earns you the World.Cup ticket. We have not come this far to drop out. My boys [Golden Eaglets] are focused hard on the World Cup ticket” – Coach Nduka

Nigeria made very effective use of tighter spaces to overcome South Africa and Zambia at the group stage, while Burkina Faso used it immensely to overrun the defending champions, Cameroon, in the second half of the last Group C encounter to qualify for the quarterfinal.

The winners of the last eight clash will secure one of four available tickets to the 2023 FIFA U-17 World Cup plus a place in the semi-finals of the 2023 U-17 AFCON.

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