- A 5-0 thrashing to Mali at the Stade Lat Dior in Thies Senegal brought an end to Sierra Leone’s hopes of progressing to the men’s U17 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers on Sunday.
After their opening 1-0 defeat to Guinea Bissau, Sierra Stars went into their final group game knowing they needed to win. A loss would end their chances of qualifying or progressing to the next stages of the competition.
However, their counterpart Mali proved too strong for the young lads from Freetown with goals from Youba Koita, Mamadou Doumbia and Bandiogou Diallo in the first 50 minutes dismantle Sierra Stars.
The Malians impressively completed their triumph with two more goals from Yacouba Maiga in the 67-minute and Diallo scored his brace in the 84th minutes.
Head coach Raymond Lewis was self-assured to continue his unbeaten run with Sierra Stars unfortunately Guinea-Bissau and Mali was hard to crackdown.
Across all levels, Sierra Stars remain the only Sierra Leone side to have participated in a FIFA competition after their impressive performance in the 2003 U-17 African qualifiers hosted in Swaziland and qualified for the World cup finals in Finland alongside Nigeria and Cameroon under the guidance of former Sierra Leone International Musa Kallon.
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