JUNIOR Wasps fought back to snatch a 2-all draw against Drancy FC in their first warm-up game in the build-up to the Fifa U-17 World Cup in Mexico.

The youngsters who are camped in Paris, France, trailed the French 0-2 at half time but a strong second half performance brought Richard Tardy’s side back into the game.

Suleiman Kakira scored Rwanda’s opener before Mico Justin leveled with 12 minutes to play.

After the game, Tardy was full of praise for the team.

"The fact that the team managed to come from two down says a lot about the players’ mental strength,” he noted.

The climax of the team’s training camp is a friendly against France’s U-17 side- the Little Blues on April 28 in Clairefontaine, Paris.

Tardy has no doubt that the game will be a good test for his team.
"The game against ‘Les Bleuets’ will give the boys a glimpse of what to expect in Mexico,” the 61-year-old said.

For the Little Blues, the match is a build-up to the Euro U-17 championship slated to run from May 3-15 in Serbia.

After the training camp in France, the team will camp in the US before connecting to Mexico for the tournament proper.

Rwanda, Burkina Faso, Congo Brazzaville and Ivory Coast are Africa’s representatives in the global showpiece which kicks off on June 18.

Other qualified nations include the USA, Canada, Panama and Jamaica from the CONCACAF region (Central, North America and Caribbean) and North Korea, Uzbekistan, Australia and Japan from Asia. New Zealand also qualified from the Oceania region.

South America’s representatives will be revealed after the upcoming 14th continental U-17 championships in Ecuador.

Group A has Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru and Uruguay while Group B pits Brazil against Chile, Colombia, Paraguay and Venezuela.

The top three teams in each pool will advance to a final six-team round-robin group. As well as collecting a ticket to Mexico, the top four teams will also qualify for this year’s Pan American Games.

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