Niger coach Tiemoko reacts to U-17 World Cup exit

Niger's 2017 Fifa Under-17 World Cup campaign has ended following a 2-0 defeat to Ghana in the round of 16 on Wednesday.

Making their first ever appearance at the youth championship, the Menas were undone by goals from Eric Ayiah and Richard Danso at the DY Patil Stadium, Navi Mumbai.

Despite their exit, coach Ismaila Tiemoko is not worried about the turn of events.

"We played well but made defensive errors that cost us two goals today," Tiemoko said.

"When we have a match with equal footing, we can't say that one person (the goalkeeper) made the difference. When you concede, it's the whole defence's error. 

"We played defensively as we should have. We also had some goal scoring opportunities so we can't really say we played defensively fully."

Niger got their India 2017 campaign off to a flying start with a 1-0 win over North Korea but fell 4-0 and 2-0 to Spain and Brazil respectively in their other group games.

"We are satisfied with the campaign," Tiemoko added.

"We've learnt a lot from our experience. 

"The qualification [to round of 16] was historic. We're already ranked 15th out of the 24 teams playing in the World Cup. 

"We were expecting better but we've accomplished a lot already in this tournament."

The Menas finished second from bottom in Group D but the three points of their opener was enough to secure them passage to the knockout stage as one of the four best third-placed teams.

The World Cup brings an end to a good year for Niger's U-17 side as they stunningly reached the semi-finals of the African championship in May.