By Mike Oboh
It was a tale of the unexpected on Wednesday as some players wept uncontrollably following their misfortune of not making it to the quarter-finals of the 39th edition of the Ramat Cup U-16 boys tournament holding in the ancient city of Kano
With the die hard and winner-takes-all attitude of the teams, it was obvious that every team had their destiny in their hands
The Kaduna U-16 team continued their high scoring performance at the Mahaha Sports complex beating Adamawa State 10-1, the highest scoreline ever recorded in the history of the competition
Nasarawa U-16 team were most disappointing.
despite full government backing, they could not go beyond the group Stage.They drew goalless with Rivers State, 2-2 with Zamfara,then lost 2-1 to Kano
For the Defending Champions Kwara State, it was a mixed bag of experience.They started on a promising note by defeating Ekiti 3-0, Bauchi 3-0 then drew 1-1 with FCT and goalless with Yobe.
Although they still qualified, but their fans were somewhat unhappy because they expected more from them
Ogun state is the only southern team still in race after Ekiti,Abia and Rivers were unable to scale through. Ogun defeated Katsina 2-0, Plateau 3-0 and Benue 2-1.
With 9 points, the Dapo Abiodun babes are looking forward to better outing against Kaduna in their Quarter-finals game on Thursday
In other quarter-final matches, Kebbi will face FCT, while Kwara confront Kano and Gombe to settle Scores with Jigawa
All the matches will take place at the Kano Pillars Stadium in Sabon Gari on Thursday
As the competition gets tougher and more challenging, the National President of YSFON and Deputy Governor of Kano State Dr Nasiru Gawuna has advised the participating teams to be patriotic and continue to work hard, so they can bring honour to their fatherland
