By Harry Awurumibe, Editor Abuja Bureau
The field is now complete as Tanzania on Sunday defeated Cameroon 1-0 to qualify on 5-1 aggregate score for their maiden FIFA-organised competition and also joined Nigeria and Morocco as African representatives in the forthcoming FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup India 2022.
Tanzania did the unthinking by thrashing Cameroon 4-1 in Yaounde in the first leg of the final round match on May 22, 2022 and completed the coup ‘d grace on Sunday with a 1-0 win at Amaan Stadium, Zanzibar courtesy of Neema Paul’s goal to qualify for India 2022.
The East African nation had been in fine form throughout the qualifying series as their star player, Clara Luvanga finished as the highest goalscorer of the qualifiers with 10 goals. She scored a hattrick in the 4-1 away victory over Cameroon.
Elsewhere, Nigeria returned to the FIFA junior women’s football summit after missing the last edition held in Uruguay in 2018 when the Flamingos under Head Coach Bala Nkiyu were eliminated by Cameroon.
This time around, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) appointment, a grassroot women’s football coach, Oloowokere Bankole to handle the U-17 women’s football team, Flamingos and he did not disappoint as he has delivered a world cup ticket in his national team assignment.
Nigeria played out a goalless draw against Ethiopia last Saturday at MKO Abiola National Stadium, Abuja after it has defeated the Ethiopians 1-0 away in Addis Ababa to qualify on 1-0 aggregate.
Also, Morocco eliminated Ghana via 4–2 penalties after both countries tied 2-2 aggregate with Morocco cancelling a 0-2 deficit conceded in Accra in the first leg when they clashed in the return leg tie in Rabat on Saturday.
With the conclusion of the African qualifiers, the regular customer, Nigeria and two debutants Morocco and Tanzania qualified for the competition in India while the African powerhouses- Ghana and Cameroon failed to qualify.
