By Harry Awurumibe, Editor Abuja Bureau
Nigeria’s U-20 women’s football team, Falconets will tackle their Cameroonian opponents on January 22, 2022 in the first leg of the fourth round FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup African qualifiers match.
This is even as the Confederation of Africa Football (CAF) has fixed the return leg match for the weekend of February 4 to 6, 2022 when all the fourth round matches for the eight teams still in the race for the two tickets to represent Africa in Costa Rica next year.
According to the full fixtures released by CAF at the weekend, all the first and second leg matches have been scheduled for the weekend of January 21, 22, 23 and February 4, 5, 6, 2022 respectively.
The matches especially the encounter between Nigeria and Cameroon will be played in the middle of the CAF Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) Cameroon 2021 which will be played in six stadia across the country.
To qualify for this round Nigeria women’s youth team thrashed Congo 4-0 away in the first leg before the country withdrew from the competition apparently sensing a massacre in the return leg tie in Lagos billed for last week.
Also, Cameroon won on walkover and advanced to the fourth round after Gabon withdrew before the first leg to set up a clash with arch-rivals, Nigeria in the winner takes all round.
Elsewhere, Tanzania went through at the expense of hardfighting Burundi on 4-3 goals aggregate while Ethiopia humiliated Botswana 8-2 aggregate score.
Uganda created the biggest upset in the qualifiers by eliminated South Africa by odd goal scored in Kampala as the home court advantage could not save South Africa last Friday in the return leg tie in Johannesburg.
Ghana had to rely on a lone goal scored by Ghana Black Queens rising star, Evelyn Badu to scale Zambia’s hurdle just as Morocco mauled Gambia 9-1goals aggregate to move to the next round while Senegal had to rely on away goal rule to edge out West African neighbours Guinea as the aggregate score stood at 3-3.
Fourth Round Full Fixtures:
1st leg: January 21-22-23, 2022
Tanzania v Ethiopia
2nd leg: February 4-5-6, 2022
Ethiopia v Tanzania
January 21-22-23, 2022
Uganda v Ghana
February 4-5-6, 2022
Ghana v Uganda
January 21-22-23, 2022
Morocco v Senegal
February 4-5-6, 2022
Senegal v Morocco
January 21-22-23, 2022
Cameroon v Nigeria
February 4-5-6, 2022
Nigeria v Cameroon
