Mali U17 national team journey at the FIFA U-17 World Cup ends in semifinal as they lost to France on Tuesday afternoon 1-2 at Manahan Stadium in Surakata.
The young Eaglets had a stunning campaign so far being the remaining African team in the tournament after knocking out Morocco in quater-finals.
Soumaïla Coulibaly’s boys stil made a good start to the game against France by opening the scoreline in the additional time of the first-half (45+1) thanks to 16-year old Ibrahim Diarra who is one of the very best players so far in the competition.
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However, the turning point of the game was Souleymane Sanogo’s red card inside 10 minutes into the second half (55th).
With their superiority, the Frenchmen managed to equalize a minute later (56th) as Yvann Titi beat Bourama Kone.
Ismail Bouneb added a second goal in the 69th minute to win it for France 2-1.
Mali will try to come back home with the Bronze medal when they face Argentina which lost to Germany in the second semi-final, on Friday, December 1 (12:00 GMT).
The final is scheduled to be played on Saturday at 12:00 GMT.