After narrowly eliminating Niger 6-5 on penalties in the semi-finals, the Black Starlets of Ghana will seek to make history on Sunday as the first country to win the Africa U-17 Cup of Nations for the third time, when they clash with defending champions, Mali, at the Stade De L’Amitié Sino in Libreville.
The Starlets will face probably their toughest task yet in the tournament against Mali in the final to end an 18-year wait for the title after winning it twice in 1995 and 1999.
Having started brightly with 4-0 win over Cameroun and a 5-0 thrashing of hosts Gabon in their first two games at the tournament, the young Ghanaians are bent on making history for themselves by preventing a back-to-back win for Mali.
Starlets coach, Samuel Paa Kwesi Fabin, has been worried about his team's lack of goals in their last two matches against Guinea and Niger in the semi-finals, having started the competition on a high and scraping through to the final via the lottery of penalties.
After two goalless draw games, Coach Fabin will expect his skipper Eric Ayiah, Ibrahim Sulley, Emmanuel Toku, Isaac Antah and goalie Danlad Ibrahim to rise to the occasion when it matters most, to lift the Starlets to victory at the expense of their opponents.
Coach Fabian told cafonline.com in an interview that he was keen on going back to the drawing table to correct their mistakes before Sunday’s clash with Mali.
“Though we had chances, we missed them but we were lucky to go through on penalties; we would go back into the drawing table and correct the mistakes before heading for the final on Sunday. We scored nine goals in the first two matches and we couldn't score in the last two matches,” coach Fabian said.
Mali, on the other hand, will be up for a record if they are able to beat the Starlets to become the first country to win the title successively having beaten South Africa 2-0 in the last edition in 2015.
Coach Jonas Kokou Komla of Mali says he expects an interesting game against the Starlets as he sets his sights on winning the trophy for his nation.
“We shall plan well for Ghana and we are sure it will be an interesting match. We are now thinking about winning the cup,” Coach Komla said in an interview.