Mali held on to defeat Ghana 2-1 and reach the semi-finals of the FIFA U-17 World Cup India 2017 on Saturday.<\/p>\n
The result follows victory over their West African rivals in this year\u2019s CAF U-17 Africa Cup of Nations final and moves them into a last-four meeting with either Iran or Spain in Navi Mumbai on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
In very wet weather at the Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium in Guwahati, both sides did well to play through the conditions, with Mali dominating to opening half.<\/p>\n
The Eaglets took the lead on the quarter-hour mark, as Hadji Drame broke in on the Ghanaian goal before putting his shot past Black Starlets goalkeeper Danlad Ibrahim for his third goal of the tournament.<\/p>\n
Ghana then had the ball in the opposite net just before half-time, however Ibrahim Sulley\u2019s effort was disallowed for a foul by team-mate Kudus Mohammed in the build-up.<\/p>\n
Just after the hour mark, Mali scored their winner through Djemoussa Traore.<\/p>\n
He beat the back-tracking Danlad Ibrahim with a long-range effort after the Ghana goalkeeper misjudged his rush off his goalline to make an attempted clearance outside his box.<\/p>\n
With 20 minutes to go, Ghana halved the deficit through a Mohammed penalty after substitute Sadiq Ibrahim was fouled in the Mali box but, in the end, the Eaglets held on to secure a second appearance in the last four at a U-17 World Cup in as many tournaments.<\/p>\n
Their only disappointment is a suspension to Mali captain Mohamed Camara for the semi-finals through the accumulation of yellow cards.<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
Source: FIFA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mali held on to defeat Ghana 2-1 and reach the semi-finals of the FIFA U-17 World Cup India 2017 on Saturday. The result follows victory over their West African rivals in this year\u2019s CAF U-17 Africa Cup of Nations final and moves them into a last-four meeting with either Iran or Spain in Navi Mumbai […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":363865,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[142,10,11],"tags":[299,42,1327,300],"yoast_head":"\n