By Eniola Olatunji
THE FRENCH U-20 Boys (Little Blues) at the early morning hours of Monday at Brander, Chile stopped Norway Boys in the quarterfinals of the ongoing age tournament in Chile 2-1 to advance into the semifinals on Wednesday.
Midfielder Simon Bonabre supplied a brace that blocked the Norwegians advancement first in the 19th minute after PSG’s Centre Back 18-year-old dark skinned Nohan Kamara gave him a thorough pass and then in the 37th minute from a Leborgne assist.
Rasmus Holten who scored the only goal to defeat Nigeria scored the consolatory goal for Norway against France in the 83rd minute from a pass supplied by Grenaas but Norway almost wept for a shot that hit the woodwork thereafter.
It was a graceful morning for France that dominated the match in all departments having 17-12 shots at goal with 6-3 on target; scored 59-41% in the ball holding meaning they were in control of the game with a convincing spray of 558-383 passes. Norway only had the rough play score of 13-9 fouls that saw them get all the 4-0 yellow cards though they had 5-4 corner kicks.
Earlier on Monday night, Africa’s Morocco had beaten USA 3-1 in the same quarterfinals with an OWN GOAl by Joshua Wynder who was making that vital mistake for the second time after he did it against South Africa.
Norway and France had met twice with France winning both matches and scoring three of the four goals. On 19th November France piped Norway by a lone goal and on 10th October 2019 France nailed Norway 2-1.
Norway had beaten Nigeria by a lone goal; played goalless with Colombia and 1-1 draw with Saudi Arabia at the group games before giving Paraguay a 1-0 pin fall in the Round of 16 games.
France dazed South Africa 2-1; bowed to USA 0-3 and hammered debutantes New Caledonia 6-0 at the group games and then piped the Lover boys from Tokyo Japan 1-0 in the Round of 16 games.
The Landslaged of Norway making their 4th appearances at U20Men’s Finals always lost at group stages, so this quarterfinal match is their biggest achievement.
The country however holds an enviable record of having the biggest record win at U20 games in a dramatic 12-0 lashing of Honduras at the 2019 tournament.
The Little Blues of France is in their 9th appearances winning the championship at Turkey 2013 when the French boys won the title via penalty shootouts after a goalless draw at full time but also had a podium finish placing 4th at the Colombia 2011 Games when she lost the Bronze to Mexico 1-3 in the 3rd Place match.
Argentina will now meet Colombia in the semifinal on Wednesday at midnight at Santiago while another semifinal will feature Morocco versus France at 9pm at Velparaiso same Wednesday.
Third place match is on Saturday at 8.00pm while the final is on Sunday at midnight Nigerian time.
Eniola Olatunji reporting for Patmos Media Line.
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