Nigeria beat USA to qualify for first Women’s U-17 World Cup semifinals
The quarterfinal of the FIFA Women’s Under-17 World Cup match between Nigeria and the United States took place at the DY Patil Sports Stadium, Navi Mumbai, India, on Friday, October 21.
The match was tied at 1-1 at first after regulation time, but was postponed for nearly two hours owing to bad weather.
Nigerian Omamuzo Edafe scored in the 27th minute, but U.S. Amalia Villarreal equalised for the Americans in the 40th.
However, Nigeria defeated USA 4-3 in a penalty shootout to advance to the FIFA Women’s Under-17 World Cup semifinals on Friday, becoming just the second African nation to do so — Ghana was the first in 2012.
Edidiong Etim, Edet Offiong, Miracle Usani, and Omamuzo Edafe scored for Nigeria in the shootout while Folorunsho missed.
Emeri Adames, Taylor Suarez, and Mia Bhuta scored for the USA, who had won Group A to advance to the quarterfinals. Emri and Jackson missed from the penalty spot.
The Americans were devastated since they came in second place in the tournament in 2008. Hopes were high that the CONCACAF champions would advance far in the competition.
The Americans have participated in the event for the sixth time, including their third consecutive appearance.
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On the other side, Nigeria in their sixth attempt, reached their first semifinal. The defending African champions had previously suffered three quarterfinal defeats in 2010, 2012, and 2014.
The team came out second in group stage B behind Germany.
Source: News Agencies
Abeeb Lekan Sodiq is a Managing Editor & Writer at theafricandream.net. He is as well a Graphics Designer and also known as Arakunrin Lekan.
