By Sedara Philip

…Gracious Amara slaps ‘em with a Brace.

Senegal on Tuesday at the Nelson Mandela Stadium, Algiers drubbed hosts Algeria in an amazing 3-0 victory in the CAF U17 boys’ football tournament.

Captain Amara Diouf who was declared Man of the Match for the second consecutive match of Senegal scored a brace to tame the Foxes of Algeria. Amara which is a common female Igbo name in Nigeria was superlative nodding home the first goal from an aerial cross in 45+4 minutes of the first half and the second goal came from a perfect penalty kick after the Algerian Goal Keeper, Hammache brought down a Senegalese Attacker which was scored in the 61st minute. Everlasting but I just discovered it is for Boys and Girls. Amara, aged 14 being born on 7th June 2008 and plays for Generation Foot of Senegal celebrated lavishly his brace being the first time Senegal will ever score more than a goal in a match at the CAF U17 final tournament.

Mamadou Savane crashed the hope of the Algerians with the 3rd goal from a pass that missed a forest of legs from the left flank for Mamadou to slot in.

Senegal played a robust physical game conceding 27-9 fouls; with two yellow cards each way but unlucky Algeria controlled the game with 54-46 ball possessions; stringed 377 passes with 68% accuracy while Senegal had 323 passes with 70% accuracy.

The Senegalese players made me remember THE POLICE of Senegal FC who were arch rivals of Enugu Rangers of Nigeria in the late 70s and 80s as that the Police always thought they were with their service pistols shooting from every direction. The Senegalese U17 had a handsome 19 shots at goal 9 of which were on target against 5 shots at goal of Algeria 3 of which were on target. I cannot report now whether Police of Senegal FC has gone under like The Abiola Babes of Abeokuta Nigeria.

Senegal tops Group A with 6 points having beaten Congo DR by a lone goal in the first round while Algeria is presently second with 3 points from the 2-0 win over Somalia. Somalia and Congo are playing at 2000 hours today Tuesday.

In their past three meetings, Algeria won all with an encore (repetition) each time of 1-0 on 13th October 2015; 27th June 2019 and 19th July 2019.
In the two appearances of Senegal, the team always lost at the Group Stages but Algeria hosted and won Silver in 2009 after losing to Gambia 1-3 and Burkina Faso that year won the Bronze after trouncing Malawi 2-0.

Nigeria will play Morocco on Wednesday at 1700 hours in Group B. Thereafter, South Africa will play Zambia at 2000 hours. Only one match will be played in Group C on Thursday and it will be between Defending Champions Cameroon and Zambia at 1700 hours.
Eniola Olatunji reporting for Patmos Media Line.

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