FIFA U-20 Women World Cup: Immaculate Falconets Top Group C
- Overwhelm Canada 3-1 as France send South Korea home 1-0
- Face Netherlands on Sunday for S-final ticket
BY VICTOR OSOWOCHI – Nigeria’s Falconets maintain a perfect record of three victories in three matches as they came from a goal down to beat Canada 3-1 for all three points in their FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup last group clash inside the Estadio Alajuela Morera Soto in the early hours of Thursday, August 18, 2002.
The match, played at 3 am Nigerian time, saw the Falconets shockingly conceding an early goal scored by 20-year-old Canadian defender, Kaila Novak in just under two minutes of play.
However, the Nigerian girls kept their cool and in the process were rewarded with two first half penalties in the 24th and 32nd minutes after mounting sustained pressure on the opponent’s defence line.
And it was Midfielder Esther Onyenezide who emerged the two-goals heroine as she stepped out to calmly put both penalties beyond the reach of hapless Canadian goaltender, Anna Karpenko, sending her the wrong way on each occasion.
The Coach Chris Danjuma Musa-tutored side completed the routing of their Canadian opposition in the 90 plus one minute of the added time as Chioma Olise ran on to a tailored pass, hitting the roof of the net to further seal Nigeria’s smooth progression into the quarterfinals round where they are slated to face the Netherlands on Sunday, August 21. The Dutch girls placed second behind defending Champions, Japan in their Group D standings after beating Ghana 4-1 in the last match.
With their victory over Canada, the Falconets top Group C with nine points following their earlier 1-0 wins against France and South Korea respectively.
In the other Group C encounter, France emerged runners-up after digging deep to beat Korea Republic 1-0. Both countries were tied on three (3) points each going into the decider.
The French ladies have an uphill task as they are slated to confront the defending Champions Japan in the last 16 stage of the Championship on Monday, August 22, 2022. The Japanese were 3-1 winners over the United States in their last game.
GROUP C TABLE
POS | Â TEAM | Â MP | Â W | D | L | Â GF | GA | PTS | GD |
 1 | Nigeria |  3 |  3 | 0 | 0 |  5 |  1 |  9 | +4 |
 2 | France |  3 |  2 | 0 | 1 |  4 |  2 |  6 | +2 |
 3 | South Korea |  3 |  1 | 0 | 2 |  2 |  2 |  3 | 0 |
 4 | Canada |  3 |  0 | 0 | 3 |  2 |  8 |  0 | -6 |