Bermuda’s players sang and rejoiced after securing their place in the Concacaf Under-20 Championship in Curaçao.

Despite losing 3-2 against Antigua and Barbuda in their final qualifier of the Caribbean Football Union Under-20 Championship finals on Tuesday, Bermuda did enough to pip St Kitts and Nevis on goal difference for the remaining qualifying spot.

Mazhye Burchall notched two vital goals against Antigua as the result left Bermuda with a plus-one goal difference, one better than St Kitts.

Bermuda will now make their debut at Concacaf Under-20 Championships in Costa Rica in February.

“This is the first time one of our under-20 teams have made it this far and the players were singing and rejoicing after we qualified,” Kyle Lightbourne, the team’s coach, said.

“We have accomplished our mission of qualifying for Costa Rica and this is a big feather in the cap for all the players and coaches.

“A lot of players have been sent overseas and have had good coaching at youth and development level in Bermuda and we are hoping we can continue it on.

“As coaches we have been talking about making it through to further rounds in competitions, and we have been able to do that.”

Bermuda went into their final match leading the group A on goal difference and needing only a draw against eventual group winners Antigua to finish on top.

However, clinching group honours proved to be beyond their reach and they had to rely on the outcome of Tuesday’s remaining group A fixture, a 3-1 win for St Kitts over Curaçao, to advance to the next stage.

“The only way both of those teams were able to knock us out was on goal difference and we knew Curaçao had to win by three clear goals and St Kitts by four.

“Ourselves and St Kitts were the two best teams in the group on paper, but it doesn’t work like that.”

Bermuda got off to a horrendous start against Antigua who took the lead in the first minute through a goal from Mohammad Zayn Hakeem.

Things got worse when Hakeem doubled Antigua’s lead in the eleventh minute as Bermuda struggled to deal with the long ball and then Javorn Stevens scored in the 40th minute to make it 3-0.

“We gave ourselves a mountain to climb and for us to be down 3-0 at half-time really made it important for us to score,” Lightbourne added.

Bermuda pulled a goal back when Burchall scored from just inside of the box in the 53rd minute. Bermuda suffered another setback after being reduced to ten men around the hour mark after midfielder Knory Scott was dismissed for stamping on an opponent.

“We scored a goal and then Knory got sent off and we were like ‘here we go again’,” Lightbourne said.

Antigua also had a player sent off for a second bookable offence before Burchall tapped in his second in the 86th minute after getting on the end of a cross from PHC Zebras team-mate Diondre Dowling.

“We settled down after one of their players got sent off for a bad challenge and managed to get a second goal and nearly got an equaliser,” Lightbourne said.

“Mazhye took his goals well and the guys fought really hard to stay in the competition.”

Kacy Milan Butterfield, the Bermuda Under-20 captain, said he was excited about the team’s possibilities going forward.

“It was a strong team even though we didn’t have all the players due to difficulties of colleges unwilling to let them go,” said the Walsall midfielder.

“For a team based mostly of overseas players and hadn’t trained much together, we still managed to fight as one and find a way to win and ignore the rumours of us being the weakest team in the group.”

Bermuda will play the winners of group B in the semi-final tomorrow, with the final and third-place match to be held on Sunday.