2015 African U-20 Championship

2015 African U-20 Championship
Coupe d'Afrique des nations junior 2015
	File:2015 African U-20 Championship.png
Tournament details
Host country	Senegal
Dates	8–22 March
Teams	8 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)	2 (in 2 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	File:Flag of Nigeria.svg Nigeria (7th title)
Runners-up	File:Flag of Senegal.svg Senegal
Third place	File:Flag of Ghana.svg Ghana
Fourth place	File:Flag of Mali.svg Mali
Tournament statistics
Matches played	16
Goals scored	53 (3.31 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Nigeria Musa Muhammed; (4 goals)
Best player(s)	Ghana Yaw Yeboah
Fair play award	File:Flag of Nigeria.svg Nigeria
	← 2013 2017 →

The 2015 African U-20 Championship was the 20th edition of the biennial international youth football tournament organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) for players aged 20 and below. The tournament took place in Senegal between 8–22 March 2015.^[1]^[2] The semi-finalists of the tournament qualified for the 2015 FIFA U-20 World Cup in New Zealand.^[3] Nigeria won the tournament, and were joined by hosts Senegal, Ghana, and Mali as CAF qualifiers for the 2015 FIFA U-20 World Cup.

Qualification

The qualifiers were played between April and August 2014. At the end of the qualification phase, seven teams joined the hosts Senegal.

Qualified teams

Venues

Cities	Venues	Capacity
Dakar	Stade Léopold Sédar Senghor	60,000
M'Bour	Stade Caroline Faye	5,000

Match officials

The referees were:^[4]

Referees

Botswana Joshua Bondo
Burkina Faso Juste Ephrem Zio
Burundi Thierry Nkurunziza
Cameroon Aurélien Juenkou Wandji
Egypt Ibrahim Nour El Din
Ivory Coast Bienvenu Sinko
Kenya Davies Ogenche Omweno
Libya Mohamed Ragab Omar
Mali Mahamadou Keita
Morocco Rédouane Jiyed
Senegal Daouda Gueye
Somalia Hagi Yabarow Wiish
Sudan Mutaz Abdelbasit Khairalla

Assistant referees

Algeria Mokrane Gourari
Cameroon Elvis Guy Noupue Nguegoue
Chad Issa Yaya
Democratic Republic of the Congo Olivier Safari Kabene
Eritrea Berhe O'Michael
Ethiopia Kindie Mussie
Ghana David Laryea
Guinea Sidiki Sidibe
Mauritania Abderahmane Warr
Nigeria Abel Baba
Senegal Ababacar Sene
Seychelles Hensley Danny Petrousse
South Africa Mothibidi Stevens Khumalo
Tunisia Faouzi Jridi
Uganda Mark Ssonko

Draw

The draw for the final tournament was held on 21 December 2014, 11:00 UTC+02:00, at the CAF Headquarters in Cairo, Egypt.^[5] Senegal and Ghana were seeded and placed into Groups A and B respectively.^[6]

Squads

Each team could register a squad of 21 players (three of whom had to be goalkeepers).^[3]

Group stage

The group winners and runners-up advanced to the semi-finals and qualified for the 2015 FIFA U-20 World Cup.^[7]

Tiebreakers

The teams were ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If tied on points, tiebreakers were applied in the following order:^[3]

Number of points obtained in games between the teams concerned;
Goal difference in games between the teams concerned;
Goals scored in games between the teams concerned;
Goal difference in all games;
Goals scored in all games;
Fair Play point system in which the number of yellow and red cards were evaluated;
Drawing of lots.

All times are UTC±00:00.

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	File:Flag of Nigeria.svg Nigeria	3	2	1	0	9	4	+5	7	Knockout stage and 2015 FIFA U-20 World Cup
2	File:Flag of Senegal.svg Senegal (H)	3	1	1	1	7	8	−1	4	Knockout stage and 2015 FIFA U-20 World Cup
3	File:Flag of Côte d'Ivoire.svg Ivory Coast	3	0	3	0	5	5	0	3
4	File:Flag of the Republic of the Congo.svg Congo	3	0	1	2	5	9	−4	1

Source: CAF
(H) Hosts

8 March 2015