Guardian

GREATER Tomorrow Academicals of Akwa Ibom and Rangers Junior of Enugu are favoured to cart away the maiden E. C Clark international U-18 tournament holding in Uyo Akwa, Ibom State.

After the preliminaries, which saw the participation of eight teams, Rangers and Greater Tomorrow notched the maximum nine points from three matches to emerge the favourites from the two groups.

In the last group match, Rangers under the tutelage of former Rangers greats, Agwo Nnaji and Ben Ugwu, defeated Amakson Academicals from FCT 3-2 even with 10 players from 65 minutes.

The competition enters the semi-final stage today with Rangers, Group B winners, squaring up to Delta Academicals, who were runners up in Group A, while Group A winners, Greater Tomorrow have for foe, Amakson of Abuja.

The four teams already out of the competition are King Amachree Sportive Academy of Benin Republic, Pepsi Academy of Lagos, Super Nova Football Academy of Rivers and Yenagoa City Football Academy of Bayelsa State.

The chief coach of the Beninoise side said he was delighted with the standard of the tournament, adding, “we were so sure we were going to win, but when we got here, the standard of Youth football overwhelmed us.”

The tournament Director, Arthur Kwame was all praise for Chief Clark for initiating the tournament and prays it comes to stay.