The Junior Red Devils of Congo coach, Basile Erariki has predicted Cote d'Ivoire and Nigeria final at the ongoing African Under-17 Championship in Morocco.
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Erariki's side were dumped 0-7 by Nigeria's Golden Eaglets in Saturday's last Group B match at the Grand Stade de Marrakech which ended their campaign at the biennial cadet championship and chance of appearing at the 2013 Fifa Under-17 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
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The Baby Elephants of Cote d'Ivoire finished their group campaign as runners-up on five points and will face hosts, Morocco on Tuesday in Casablanca while Nigeria will square up against Tunisia on Wednesday in the semifinals.
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Congo finished bottom behind the three West African sides, Nigeria, Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana.
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Erariki rated the football standard witnessed in Group B higher than Group A that had hosts Morocco, Tunisia, Gabon and Botswana.
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"I agree that our group was the most difficult," he explained.
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"Any of the four teams in this group is good and you could see that the semifinalists did not emerge here until today (Saturday).
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"Either Ghana, Nigeria, Cote d'Ivoire or Congo could have qualified easily in the other group but there is nothing we can do about that again.
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"If Nigeria and Cote d'Ivoire play the semifinals the way they played us they can end up being in the final."
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Eaglets' coach, Manu Garba corrected an insinuation that Nigeria deliberately conceded defeat to the Ivorians in order to edge out the Congolese from the competition.
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"We came here to win all our matches and you could see that my players were crying after we lost to Cote d'Ivoire," said Garba.
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"Before that game we've not lost any match for over one year and you could see that we're so pained after that set back."
That can happen because they are the toughest team so far in the competition. But our Golden Eaglets have to be very careful
That final would go in Nigeria's favour cause they would definately do everything to avenge the first defeat against Ivory Coast.