By Harry Awurumibe, Editor, Abuja Bureau
After an uninspiring first leg performance which ended in a 1-1 away draw against Etalons of Burkina Faso in Bamako, Mali last week, Nigeria’s Flamingos reruned to the winning ways in the second leg match at Moshood Abiola National Stadium, Abuja on Saturday with rising goalpoacher Harmony Chidera Chidi scoring a hattrick in the 6-0 thrashing of the Burkinabes to qualify for the final round on 7-1 aggregate.
The match was barely 11 minutes old when Chidi who scored Nigeria’s goal in Bamako a week earlier struck with a fine finish after an exchange of passes from the midfield.
The hosts continued to probe the goalmouth of Burkina Faso and was rewarded when Peace Mary Effiong who grabbed a brace in the encounter scored Nigeria’s second goal in the 33rd minute as scores stood at 2-0 at first time.
On resumption, Nigeria piled more pressure on the visiting team and they conceded the 3rd goal in the 74th minute when striker Chidi popped up again to score her second on the day.
Winger Ramotalahi Kareem scored Nigeria’s 4th goal in the 84th minute while Chidi completed her hattrick two minutes later when she scored Nigeria’s 5th
goal in the 86th minute.
Effiong scored the 6th goal and her brace in the 90th minute in what looked like late minute goalrush by the Nigerians girls who were heavily criticised after the away draw against Burkina Faso in Bamako in a weekend their counterparts from Burundi walloped Djibouti 18-0 and followed it up with another 6-0 in the return leg to qualify for the final round on 24-0 aggregate, a record score in CAF U-17 women’s qualifiers history.
Perhaps, it was the results of matches that motivated the Flamingos to fire from all cylinders to overpower the Burkinabes who could not match the superiority of the reigning FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup bronze medallists.
Nigeria will now meet the winner of the two-legged encounter between Senegal and Liberia as the Senegalese with 3-1 first leg advantage looks more likely to meet the Flamingos in the final round double-header.
