…As Cameroon Beats Tanzania 3-1 In Yaounde.
The atmosphere at the Remo Stars Stadium in Ikenne, was that of great joy on Saturday afternoon as the National women Under-20 team, Falconets defeated hard fighting Scorchers of Malawi 2-0 in the 1st leg of the final Qualifier for the World U20 World Cup coming up later in Poland.
A nail biting goalless first half had a shouting match in the dressing room for the Nigerians, who on resumption of play, put immense pressure on the Malawians resulting in an own goal from Maureen Kenneth in the 46th minute of play for Nigeria’s 1st goal.
Star girl, Ifeanyi Kindness again showed her quality when she singularly dispatched the Malawian Goalkeeper and two on rushing defenders to score the winning goal in the 58th minute.
Referee Shahenda El Mughrabi of Egypt dashed the hopes of Malawian coach, Maggie Chombo, who told the Nigerian media on arrival in Ikenne that her country had carefully plotted to beat Nigeria to upgrade their status in Africa.
Nigeria is tipped to get one of the four African slots at the Poland finals later this year as the 2nd leg against Malawi at the Bingu National Stadium in Lilongwe looks like a formality for the frustrated Malawian Babes on 9th May.
In a related developemnt, Cameroon defeated their Tanzanian counterparts at the Ahmadou Ahidjo Stadium in Yaounde 3-1 also on Saturday.
Tanzania scored first through Winfrida Gerald in the 16th before Maeva Nyadjou Wamen got the equalizer in the 35th minute and the half time whistle went off.
On resumption, Christiane Kiki Meva scored the 2nd goal for Cameroon in the 45th minute only for Wamen to get her Brace in the 51st minute and final scores read Cameroon 3 Tanzania 1. Second leg is scheduled for 9th May in Tanzania.
The Falconets have appeared a record eleven times in the African final phase and moved forward the eleven times to the world cup finals in 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2018, 2022 and 2024.
For the Poland race, Nigeria rounded up Rwanda 5-0 on aggregate winning 1st leg 1-0 in Rwanda and raided them 4-0 in the 2nd leg. That was at the 2nd round of the African qualifier.
At the 3rd round, Nigeria sent Senegal gasping for breathe 3-1 on aggregate with a 1-0 victory at Ikenne in the 1st leg and a stunning 2-1 victory in the 2nd leg in Dakar.
A look at the Nigerian performances shows two girls P. Oscar who scored two goals against RWANDA in the 2nd legs and L. Kindness who was absolutely unkind to Senegal scoring the only goal in the 1st game and sending the Senegalese back to the boardroom to adjust for next edition with the winner.
The observation is that Nigeria has so many scorers who can fire from any angle in the pack of Falconets as seen in the 8-1 goals obtained in these final rounds.
Nigeria were runners up at two world cup finals in 2010 and 2014. Nigeria lost to hosts Germany in 2010 and same German team in 2014. In 2010 Nigeria lost 0-2 to Germany and in 2014 Nigeria lost by a lone goal.
The year 2014 was nostalgic when Agba Baller, Asisat Oshoala was top scorer with 7 goals and also emerged Best Player in that tournament.
Nigeria had caged the Tigress of North Korea 6-2 in the 1st Semifinal at Mincton, Canada that 2014 before 4,871 fans where Oshoala wrecked the Tigress scoring four goals in that single match in the 24th, 60th, 68th and 85th minutes.
Can this bunch of Falconets make an encore starting with Malawi on 9th May?
The world women’s football cup finals will run among 24 nations from 5th to 27th September 2026 in Popand. The defending champions, North Korea is set for a superlative performance.
Eniola Olatunji
Reporting for Patmos Media Line.
