Arsenal 18yo provides assist as team reach u20 AFCON quarter-finals | OneFootball

Arsenal’s Osman Kamara provided an assist in his first start for the Sierra Leone u20s on Tuesday, with his team assured qualification to the U20 AFCON knockouts.

Photo by Ryan Hiscott/Getty Images

Arsenal youth winger Osman Kamara is away with the Sierra Leone u20s at the Africa u20 Cup of Nations 2025 this month, marking his first international appearances.

Kamara made his debut in the opening game against Zambia, coming off the bench in the final minutes, but he got his first chance to start in Sierra Leone’s final group game against South Africa on Tuesday night.

The game didn’t go to plan, with South Africa taking a 2-0 lead, but Kamara helped to get his team back into the game by assisting teammate Momoh Kamara for 2-1.

Photo via Arsenal.com

Arsenal’s Kamara floated a cross into the area in the 69th minute, and the Sierra Leone captain cut inside before finding a finish at the near post.

The game ultimately ended in disappointment, with South Africa scoring two late goals in the last four minutes to kill the contest and earn an emphatic 4-1 result.

But Sierra Leone won’t be too downhearted, as the result qualified them for the knockout stages anyway.

Photo via Arsenal.com

Sierra Leone have five teams in their group, and all of the other teams still have one game remaining.

But with second and third place playing each other, only one of them can overtake Sierra Leone on the final day.

Second place is still a knockout qualification spot, and due to the head-to-head results so far, there’s no possible scenario where fourth-place Egypt can overtake Sierra Leone as well.

That would only have been possible if Sierra Leone suffered an even heavier defeat to South Africa, creating an opportunity for a three-way head-to-head on seven points where South Africa and Egypt both finished above the current group leaders.

Tuesday’s 4-1 defeat wasn’t enough for that scenario, as Sierra Leone already won 4-1 against Egypt.

U20 AFCON Group A as it stands

There’s also no scenario where Sierra Leone can maintain top spot in the group, so they will be finishing as the runner-up regardless of results on the final day.

That means a quarter-final match against the Group B winners, which will be determined on Wednesday. Morocco, Nigeria, and Tunisia are all still in contention for top spot.