By Amaechi Agbo
Nigeria’s U-17 women’s team, the Flamingos will take on their USA counterparts in the quarter-final of the 2022 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in India.
The young Nigerian girls set up the encounter with the USA damsels after they overcame South American opponents, Chile 2-1 in their last Group B match on Monday in Bhubaneswar.
Blessing Emmanuel’s goal in the 4th minute of the game and Bisola Mosaku’s strike off a free-kick by dead-ball artist Miracle Usani with eight minutes left was enough to see Nigeria through at the Kalinga Stadium, despite a late penalty converted by Roverner Tali.
The win earned the Flamingoes a place in the quarter finals on Friday, with USA.
The United States girls defeated another African representative, Morocco 4-0 in the last Group A match to set up a date with the West Africans.
As was the case against New Zealand on Friday, the Flamingos created a slew of opportunities that were not converted, but Head Coach Bankole Olowookere assured the team will get even better as the tournament progresses.
“We missed a number of chances again, but I like the spirit of the team and we will get better as we go on in the competition. I am happy we made it into the last eight, and that we sustained our winning mentality despite the fact that we only needed a draw to sail through.”
Germany’s 3-1 win over New Zealand in the other match of Group B meant the Germans finished with the maximum nine points in the group phase, having scored a total of 11 goals conceding only two.
Nigeria finished with six points, and a plus six goals advantage after scoring seven goals and conceding only two.
On their part, USA scored a total 13 goals in three matches conceding just once in their preliminary campaign.
The match will start by 12noon on Friday.
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