Basile Erariki Predicts CIV, Nigeria Final

[Folami David]

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."

[Shola Sholaz]

That can happen because they are the toughest team so far in the competition. But our Golden Eaglets have to be very careful

[Folami David]

That final would go in Nigeria's favour cause they would definately do everything to avenge the first defeat against Ivory Coast.