2013 CAF UNDER-17 FINALS: Nigeria's Golden Eaglets Broke Goal Records At The Championship

 The Golden Eaglets ended up breaking records after being defeated by the Baby Elephant of Cote d'Ivoire at the finals of the just concluded CAF under 17 championship on Saturday. The Nigerian team, which won the heart of most spectators at Marrakech Morocco, scored 22 goals in 5 games - an average of 4 goals per match.

The Eaglets alone netted in 42% of the total 58 goals scored in the tournament. And both the top scorer and runners up in the competition came from the free scoring Nigeria side. Isaac Success scored 7 goals to top the scorers chart and Kelechi Ihenacho scored 5 goals to place second.

It was widely reported that this young Eaglets had scored 127 goals in their build up to the CAF championship and it wasn't a fluke that the team added another 22, to bring the total goals to 149 goals so far.

However, the Baby Elephants seem to be their Waterloo, and defeated the Eaglets twice during the tournament ( the group stage and the finals). Most of the spectators we spoke to said that luck was playing in favor of the Ivorian side. But you can't take it away from them, the Baby Elephant slim edge over the Eaglets may be what played out during the tournament after all.

Perhaps, the Eaglets were over confident of their abilities, while the Baby Elephants were more determined to win. The goal scoring skills of the Ivorian were also not in doubt during the penalty shoot out, which they won by 5 - 4.

The West African derby was a pulsating encounter, which ended 1 - 1 at regular time and couldn't provide a winner for the championship. It was left to a penalty shoot out to decide the eventual winner and the Ivorian scored all their five penalties, while Chidiebere Nwakali missed one for Nigeria.

The Ivorian became the true champions. The baby Elephants didn't only win their first African Under 17 title in style, but they emphatically defeated the Golden Eaglets of Nigeria and dented the records of one of the finest under 17 team Africa has ever seen.

Though, there are still room for improvement for both teams as Tunisia and Morocco would be joining them to represent Africa in the up coming FIFA Under 17 World tournament in Dubai, United Arab Emirate (UAE). You can be rest assured that Africa has a good representatives in Cote d'Ivoire and Nigeria.