By Harry Awurumibe, Editor Abuja Bureau
Nigeria on Wednesday suffered a 6-5 penalty defeat in the hands of Colombia in the first semi final match of the 2022 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in India.
Nothing separated the two sides at full time despite the near dominance of Colombia thanks to the Nigerian first-choice goalkeeper, Faith Omilana who made a total of seven wonderful saves to force the game to penalty shoot-out.
But, like in the quarter final match against the United States of America (USA), the technical crew of Nigeria led by Olowookere Bankole withdrew Omilana in the added time and threw the reserve goalkeeper, Chikamso Linda Jiwuaku into the fray believing she will pull off some saves as she did against Team USA.
However, the strategy backfired as the Colombians were more clinical from the penalty spot as they scored six of their seven kicks while Nigeria lost two of their own kicks to fall short of reaching the final for the first time.
Omamuze Edafe and Comfort Folorunsho lost their kicks while Colombia’s Alvaro Munoz shot was saved by Jiwuaku.
