The Falconets of Nigeria are focused on crossing Netherlands hurdles in the quarter finals of the 2022 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup holding in Costa Rica.
This follows the Nigerian girls scintillating performance in the group stage beating Canada 3-1earlier Thursday morning of August 18 topping the Group C with nine points from three games.
Esther Onyenezide scored twice from the spot as the third goal came from Chioma Olise in added time.
Chris Musa, head coach of the team before the encounter said that his girls would seek to win even as a quarter-final ticket was already in the bag, in order to sustain their winning mentality following hard-fought victories over France and Korea Republic.
That was exactly what the Falconets did.
Africa’s best team conceded their first goal of the competition in an accidental manner, following goalkeeper Omini Oyono’s poor management of a backpass from Jumoke Alani that granted Kala Novak a fortuitous goal in less than two minutes.
“It was great for us to come back from that setback, and also conceding first in the tournament. We showed character and spirit, and that would be huge for us going forward in the competition,” Musa said after the match.
However, the Dutch team started off with a loss in their first game against Japan but managed to turn things around with a 3-1 win over the USA and a 4-1 cleansing of another African representative, Ghana.
The Falconets who had a perfect group game games will face the Netherlands on Monday, August 22 at La Estadio Alejandro Morera Soto, the same venue of the Falconets’ previous matches.
