By Harry Awurumibe
The return leg of the first round of the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup African qualifier matches will be played across the continent this weekend with Nigeria’s Falconets travelling to Dar es Salaam, the Tanzanian capital to tackle the Tanzanite with the visitors still basking in the euphoria of the 3-0 first leg win over the host nation.
The Nigerian contingent made up of players, coaching crew, backroom staff and Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) officials will depart Abuja tomorrow to the East African country to support the young women flying the country’s flag.
Three goals from defender, Lilian Tule and a brace from enterprising attacker, Rashidat Ajibade gave Nigeria a comfortable victory over Tanzania at Samuel Ogbemudia stadium, Benin City, Edo state, a fortnight ago going into the return leg match billed inside Azam stadium, Dar es Salaam on Sunday, October 1, 2017.
Falconets Chief Coach, Danjuma Christopher has taken the players through their paces since returning to Abuja after the short trip to Benin City where Nigeria hosted Tanzania in the first leg even as he has been working with his assistants to correct all the mistakes his players made in the first meeting.
The Falconets wasted a basketful of goals in Benin City, a situation which left the Nigerian coach infuriated and he has since told his players in clear terms that they should be more clinical in front of goalkeepers to win games.
According to Danjuma” I accept that my players wasted many begging chances in Benin City but it was expected because they are playing together for the first time. For some of them, it was the first international match and that made them nervous on the day. Well, we have talked about it and have been working hard to correct the mistakes before the return leg in Tanzania”.
However if Nigeria qualify after beating Tanzania on Sunday, the next opponents will be either Senegal or Morocco which will also square up this weekend too with Morocco travelling to Darkar for the return leg with 2-0 goals advantage.
Elsewhere, South Africa with 5-0 goals advantage will keep a date with Namibia in Windhoek while in Cinakry, Guinea will try to do the unthinkable to upturn the 9-0 defeat in the hands of the rampaging Indomitable Lionesses of Cameroon.
In Accra, Ghana Black Queens will host Algerians they defeated 5-0 in Algiers just as Kenya will ambush Ethiopia in Nairobi to determine the winner after the first leg leg in Addis Ababa ended in 2-2 draw
Meanwhile, Burundi and Sierra Leone have qualified for the second round after their opponents withdrew from the competition.
Team 1 | Team 2 | 1st leg | 2nd leg | |
w/o | — | — | ||
B2 | 5–0 | – | ||
B3 | 2–0 | – | ||
B4 | 3–0 | – | ||
w/o | — | — | ||
B6 | 0–9 | – | ||
B7 | 0–5 | – | ||
B8 | 2–2 | – |
