By Harry Awurumibe in Cairo, Egypt
Two early first half goals scored by
emerging goalpoacher, Opeyemi Ajakaiye and strike partner, Omowunmi Bello ensured that Nigeria’s U-17 women’s football team Flamingos defeated the U-17 women’s team of Egypt 2-0 in Cairo on Saturday night to qualify for the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup African qualifiers final round on 6-0 aggregate score.
Nigeria had also thrashed Egypt 4-0 in the first leg two weeks ago at Moshood Abiola National Stadium, Abuja with Bello scoring a brace while Ajakaiye and Miracle Usani provided the other two goals on the day.
Again, home fans who came out in their numbers to support their team in the return leg at Petro Sport Stadium in Cairo were yet to settle down when Ajakaiye struck in the 5th minute to silence the crowd.
She beat the Egyptian goalkeeper at the right far post from 25 meters out even as the goal was beautifully worked out by the Nigerians who started the game like a house on fire.
The early goal motivated the Flamingos to come all over the confused Egyptian young ladies but it was Nigeria that scored the second goal in the 13th minute courtesy of Bello who scored another beauty of a goal from the edge of the box.
However, the goals dried up soon after the second goal as the Egyptians tried to mitigate the already bad situation by forming two layers of defence to limit the fast-playing Nigerians from scoring more goals.
Flamingos goalkeeper, Faith Omilana who was vertually on holiday made her first save in the match in the 27th minute when the Egyptian danger woman Laila Zaher fired a close range shot just as the Referee signalled for few minutes water break in the 28th minutes.
What looked like Nigeria’s third goal was inadvertently diverted away from sailing into the Egyptian goalpost in the 45th minute after her shot was blocked and lurking Bello fired the rebound but she got on the way to
misdirect the goal bound ball.
On resumption, the Flamingos failed to re-enact the first half form as they were dominated by the Egyptians who could not however trouble the Nigerians much inspite of the vociferous fans who pushed them to go beyond their limits.
Flamingos Head Coach Oloowokere Bankole who sensed the danger made the required substitutions by drafting in Mercy Itimi to replace Timinuni Adeshina in the 68th minute while the team captain, Alvine
Dah-Zozzu who had a very bad day was replaced by Yetunde Ayantosho in the 76th minute.
Although the Egyptians made a last ditch-efforts to score a goal through Zaher and captain Nadia Ramadhan, it was too little too late as the match officials from The Gambia ended the match after six minutes added time.
With the victory Nigeria will face either Ethiopia or South Africa whose result of the return leg tie in Addis Ababa was not know as at the time of this report.
Nigeria Line up in Egypt:
- Omilana, Faith-1
- Usani Miracle-3
- Timinuni Adeshina-5
4.Emmanuel Blessing-8
5.Afolabi Taiwo-10
6.Folorunsho Comfort-13
7.Dah-ZozzuAlvin-9
8.Ajakaiye Opeyemi-17
9.Bello Aminat O-7
10.Oyinlola Olamide-6
11.Nasaku Bisola-18
