Senegal and Morocco face each other in the final of the CAN U17 in Algeria, Friday, May 19, to register on their list the first coronation of their selection in this category. An already historic meeting between prolific Senegalese offensively and solid Moroccans in defense.
After strong suspenseful semi-finals, Senegal and Morocco won their ticket to the CAN U17 final in pain, by dismissing Burkina Faso and Mali respectively on penalties. The Cubs of Teranga will face those of the Atlas on Friday, May 19, in a final that will be historic regardless of the outcome. Indeed, the two nations have never managed to reach the final stage of the competition in this category since its creation in 1995.
The best course, before this 2023 edition, goes to the Moroccans who had reached the semi-finals in 2013. They then lost against Côte d’Ivoire (1-2), future winner of the tournament, and had also failed to little to clinch 3rd place after their defeat on penalties against Tunisia (1-1, 10-11 TAB). For their part, the balance sheet is even more starving for the Cubs of Teranga since they had never passed the stage of the group stage, disputed only once during the 2011 edition.
A bygone era now with the results obtained during this CAN U17 2023, and which proves that these two nations have placed the training of their young talents at the heart of their sports policy for several years.
The Moroccan defense put to the test by the Senegalese offensive force
The selections of Senegal and Morocco are among those who have impressed the most during this edition of the competition, alongside an equally dominant Malian team but unfortunate in the semi-finals. The Senegalese have almost never trembled during this CAN U17, with often wide successes against their opponents: 1-0 against Congo, 3-0 against Algeria and 3-0 against Somalia in the group stage, before completely outclassing South Africa in the quarter-finals (5-0). The only major alert was against Burkina Faso in the semi-finals (1-1, 5-4 after TAB)where the Cubs had to fight until the penalty shootout not to spoil their very successful tournament at the gates of the final.
Sign of their dominance, Senegal also recorded more goals scored than any other team during the competition, and could still improve this total in the final against Morocco. In its ranks is also a major and particularly precocious offensive asset of only 14 years old : Amara Diouf, top scorer in the history of the AFCON U17 on an edition with already 5 achievements on the clock, allowing him to exceed the Nigerian record Victor Osimhen (4 goals scored in 2015) thanks to his double in the quarter-finals against South Africa.
Despite this efficiency in attack, the shock against Morocco should be balanced since the team of Saïd Chiba was also very successful during the tournament, with victories against South Africa (2-0) and Nigeria (1-0) as well as an inconsequential loss against Zambia (1-2) during the last group match. The Atlas Cubs then swept thetheir Algerian neighbors in the quarter-finals (3-0), before coming out of it at the end of the suspense against the Malians in the semi-finals (0-0, 6-5 after TAB) after being clearly dominated in the game.
The Moroccans can also boast of having a major asset with their goalkeeper Taha Benrhozil. The young Moroccan goalkeeper advances to the final having conceded no goal in all of the four games he played as a starter in the competition, since he was not present on the score sheet during of his team’s only defeat against Zambia. He also put in a solid performance in the semi-finals against the Malians, allowing Morocco to overturn the penalty shootout with his decisive saves after a very complicated start from his teammates.
It remains to be seen which of these two teams will manage to assert their main asset and take over their opponent in the final to clinch a first historic title in the U17 African Cup of Nations.