The Black Starlets, the national under-17 team, lost to Nigeria in the third-place playoff on Tuesday and ultimately placed fourth in the WAFU Zone B Under-17 Championship.

In the championship match against the Golden Eaglets, the Black Starlets were hoping to earn the bronze medal, but Abdulmuiz Adeleke’s late goal gave Nigeria a 3-2 victory.

The Golden Eaglets had grabbed the lead early in the game, but Ghana’s 19th-minute equalizer, defender Harve Ghafa, who went on to win Player of the Match, brought the score back to par.

Ten minutes after he equalized, Gbafa again finished brilliantly from a free kick to give Ghana the lead.

Nigeria rallied to tie the score with five minutes remaining in the half.

The game was fiercely contested in the second half, and with barely a minute remaining, Adeleke of Nigeria scored the game’s winning goal with a deft finish to send it into penalty kick territory.

After losing to Nigeria, the Black Starlets’ hopes of winning at least a bronze medal in the competition were shattered.