2015 African U-20 Championship

Coupe d'Afrique des nations junior 2015
Tournament details
Host country	Senegal
Dates	8–22 March
Teams	8 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)	2 (in 2 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Nigeria (7th title)
Runners-up	Senegal
Third place	Ghana
Fourth place	Mali
Tournament statistics
Matches played	16
Goals scored	53 (3.31 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Musa Muhammed (4 goals)
Best player(s)	Yaw Yeboah
Fair play award	Nigeria
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The 2015 African U-20 Championship was the 20th edition of the biennial international youth football tournament organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) for players aged 20 and below. The tournament took place in Senegal between 8–22 March 2015. ^{[1] [2]}

The semi-finalists of the tournament qualified for the 2015 FIFA U-20 World Cup in New Zealand. ^[3] Nigeria won the tournament, and were joined by hosts Senegal, Ghana, and Mali as CAF qualifiers for the 2015 FIFA U-20 World Cup.

Qualification

The qualifiers were played between April and August 2014. At the end of the qualification phase, seven teams joined the hosts Senegal.

Qualified teams

•   Congo
•   Ghana
•   Ivory Coast
•   Mali
•   Nigeria
•   Senegal (hosts)
•   South Africa
•   Zambia

Venues

Cities	Venues	Capacity
Dakar	Stade Léopold Sédar Senghor	60,000
M'Bour	Stade Caroline Faye	5,000

Match officials

The referees were: ^[4]

Referees

Assistant referees

Draw

The draw for the final tournament was held on 21 December 2014, 11:00 UTC+02:00, at the CAF Headquarters in Cairo, Egypt. ^[5] Senegal and Ghana were seeded and placed into Groups A and B respectively. ^[6]

Squads

Each team could register a squad of 21 players (three of whom had to be goalkeepers). ^[3]

Group stage

The group winners and runners-up advanced to the semi-finals and qualified for the 2015 FIFA U-20 World Cup. ^[7]

Tiebreakers

The teams were ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If tied on points, tiebreakers were applied in the following order: ^[3]

1. Number of points obtained in games between the teams concerned;
2. Goal difference in games between the teams concerned;
3. Goals scored in games between the teams concerned;
4. Goal difference in all games;
5. Goals scored in all games;
6. Fair Play point system in which the number of yellow and red cards were evaluated;
7. Drawing of lots.

All times are UTC±00:00.

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Nigeria	3	2	1	0	9	4	+5	7	Knockout stage and 2015 FIFA U-20 World Cup
2	Senegal (H)	3	1	1	1	7	8	−1	4
3	Ivory Coast	3	0	3	0	5	5	0	3
4	Congo	3	0	1	2	5	9	−4	1

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Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Mali	3	3	0	0	4	1	+3	9	Knockout stage and 2015 FIFA U-20 World Cup
2	Ghana	3	2	0	1	4	2	+2	6
3	South Africa	3	1	0	2	6	6	0	3
4	Zambia	3	0	0	3	3	8	−5	0

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Knockout stage

In the knockout stage, if a match was level at the end of normal playing time, extra time was played (two periods of 15 minutes each) and followed, if necessary, by a penalty shoot-out to determine the winner, except for the play-off for third place where no extra time was played. ^[3]

	Semi-finals				Final
	18 March
	Nigeria	2
					22 March
	Ghana	0
					Nigeria	1
	19 March
					Senegal	0
	Mali	1
	Senegal	2
					Third place
					22 March
					Ghana	3
					Mali	1

Semi-finals

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Third place match

Final

Awards

• Fair play trophy: Nigeria ^[8]
• Orange Man of the tournament: Yaw Yeboah ^[8]
• Best goal of the tournament: Bernard Bulbwa against Senegal in the final ^[8]

Team of the tournament

Goalscorers

4 goals

• Musa Muhammed

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

Own goal

• Thamsanqa Masiya (against Ghana)
• Kabelo Seriba (against Zambia)

See also

• 2015 African U-17 Championship

References

External links

• 19th Edition of the African Under 20 Championship, CAFonline.com