Nengi Ernest
After gruelling days of competition, the Group stage of the FIFA Women’s U-20 World Cup has now come to an end as the final group stage matches of Group C and Group D saw the high-flying Falconets score three out of a total of 14 goals recorded.
With Nigeria’s status quo as a top team in women’s football in Africa, they upheld their status as they finished Group C as leaders of the Group with a total of nine points defeating France and South Korea 1-0 each and whipping Canada 3-1 earlier today.
Previews and predictions of the game had favoured Nigeria to easily win because Canada had a bad run at the U-20 Women’s World Cup after losing to South Korea 0-2 and France 1-3. However, Nigeria did not fail to continue the walloping as they got a perfect 3-1 win against Canada same scoreline they got six years ago when they met. Up next for the Falconets Netherlands on Sunday in the quarterfinals of the Costa Rica 2022 World Cup.
In Alajuela, Canada took the lead early on in Alajuela courtesy of a defensive blunder from goalkeeper Omini Oyono. After the fourth-minute blunder, the 24th minute of the game saw an equaliser as Esther Oyenezide got a spot kick after a Canadian defender handled the ball with her hand. Esther did not fail convert the kick into a goal. Nine minutes after the Falconets got another penalty and after a VAR review, Esther Oyenezide got a brace to put her side on a comfortable lead.
The second half of the game became more competitive as the Falconets defended their two goals until the 90+1 minute when Chioma Olise made it three goals in favour of Nigeria to end the encounter.
In other fixtures, at the Estadio Nacional, the French U-20 Women’s team defeated South Korea 1-0 courtesy of Mbakem Nairo Esther 74th minute goal. South Korea’s loss means they are out of the tournament despite defeating Canada 2-0 and suffering a 1-0 loss against Chelsea.
In Group D, the Dutch side, Netherlands lost to Japan 1-0 in the first round, in the second round the USA team was unexpectedly the victim of Netherlands’ effort to come back alive as they broke out to win 3-0.
Ghana who was the whipping girls of the tournament rounded up their campaign with their third loss amounting to 0 points. Tye Ghanaian ladies lost 3-0 to the USA, then another 2-0 loss to Japan which was topped up with a 4-1 loss to the Netherlands.
Asian powerhouse Japan continued to maintain their winning streak, They opened their campaign with a 1-0 victory against Netherland and followed up with another 2-0 win in the match against Ghana. They didn’t stop as they got another thrilling 3-1 win against the USA women, courtesy of Manaka Matsukubo, Shinomi Koyama and Haruna Tabata who scored in the 55th, 67th and 84th minute respectively.
However, the USWNT U-20 side who won their Ghana encounter 3-0 and lost 0-3 to the Netherland in their second match struggled to have a meaningful end but to no avail as they scored just a goal in the 70th minute of the game courtesy Simone Jackson.