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Watch how Ghana defeated Niger in a dramatic penalty shootout

Emmanuel Toku emerged as the hero of the day when his penalty kick sent Ghana to their final of 2017 Africa U-17 Nations Cup, after a nervy shootout against Niger

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The Ghanaians squandered all the chances they created both in the first and second halves of the game to end the 90 minutes without finding the back of the net against their less-fancied opponents. It was the second match running that coach Paa Kwesi Fabin's boys failed to score, after scoring nine times in their first two games.

In the first half, Ghana created opportunities against the difficult Nigeriens, but chances were wasted, most notably from Eric Ayiah, the joint leading top scorer who shot wide on two different occasions. Gabriel Leveh and Edmund Arko Mensah also had their turns of the numerous opportunities and they followed suit by fluffing them.

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The closest Niger came to scoring in the first half was presented to Yacouba Aboubacar, yet he blasted the ball in the wrong direction.

After the interval the game evolved into an end to end affair, as the Nigeriens came into the game to also cause some threats in the goal area of Ghana.

Abdul Rashid Yusif on the hour mark headed a powerful ball from a well-executed corner kick, but the ball hit the cross bar to give Niger a big sigh.

Eric Ayiah made a dangerous run into the Nigerien goal area, yet the goalkeeper stopped the ball to rescue Niger.

Ghana took total control of the game from the 65th minute of the second half and started to fire the balls from all angles in search of the opener and in one of such moves, captain Ayiah was put through and beat his marker to the ball, but his finish was acrobatically saved by Khaled Lawali Ibrahim in the Nigerien goal.

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Before that Mohammed Iddriss' long range shot from 20 yards out had missed the post by a few inches.

In the late minute, Ghana came under attack and survived a late minute scare when a long range free kick from Niger hit the crossbar.

In the penalty shootout, the Black Starlets scored through Bismark Terry Owusu, Gideon Acquah, Mohammed Iddriss, Faisal Osman and Emmanuel Toku, with Eric Ayiah, the skipper and the marksman of the team having his fourth kick stopped by the Nigerien goalie.

Niger wasted two of their seven (7) kicks through Yacine Wa Massamba and Djibrilla Ibrahim Mossi.

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