Nigeria’s Flamingos have crashed out of the 2025 FIFA U-17 women’s World Cup after suffering a humiliating 4-0 defeat to Italy in the round of 16 on Tuesday.
Italy went into the game after winning all their three group matches while the Flamingos reached the knockout stage as one of the best third-placed teams.
The Flamingos lost their opening two group matches to Canada (4-1) and France (1-0) before hammering Samoa to progress.
Also Read: ‘We’re Not Ready To Go Home’ — Olowookere Declares Ahead Flamingos Vs Italy
After keeping the Italians at bay for most parts of the first half, the Flamingos eventually conceded in the 45th minute as Anna Copelli broke the deadlock.
In the 58th minute Caterina Venturelli doubled the lead before Giulia Robino added the third on 63 minutes.
With just two minutes left in the encounter Rachele Giudici made it 4-0.
By James Agberebi
21 Comments
What happened in Canada today was more than a defeat — it was a footballing reality check, one written in bold letters by Italy’s U17 girls. Losing 4–0 after an earlier 4–1 thrashing by France isn’t just a bad day at the office; it’s a loud alarm bell for Nigerian football. This is the same country that finished third at the last edition, the same nation that once hammered Azerbaijan 11–1 in 2012. How did we go from being the feared giants of youth football to looking completely lost on the pitch?
Watching that game, it was painfully clear that Italy didn’t just win because they were fitter or faster — they won because they were better schooled. Every touch, every run, every press screamed of technical and tactical intelligence. Their spacing was perfect, their transitions smooth, and their understanding of when to press or drop deep was top-class. The girls moved like they’d been coached, not just trained. In contrast, our players looked like they were figuring things out as they went along. So sad!
And that’s where the problem lies: coaching education. You can’t expect brilliance from a system that doesn’t invest in its brains. Our coaches are left behind in the dark ages of football thinking, recycling old tactics that can’t stand the test of modern technical football. The Italians — and even the French before them — showed what structured coaching and long-term investment can produce. Meanwhile, the NFF keeps handing the same old names the same old jobs, hoping for a different outcome. It’s like painting rust and calling it renewal.
Shame on the NFF for this chronic failure to invest in both players and coaches. We’ve spent years celebrating raw talent while ignoring the science and education behind football success. Our girls aren’t bad — they’re simply under-taught. The sad part? They paid the price for administrative laziness. Until Nigeria prioritizes coaching education, scouting development, and proper technical grounding over politics and patronage, we’ll keep being used as tactical training dummies for technically superior teams.
Which tournament are you watching. Is the tournament in Canada or Morocco. And which France beat the flamingos 4-1.
And what point did you make out of the notice?
I am not sure we watched the same match @Papafem. I watched the match in full on Fifaplus TV, and the Italy girls really didn’t outplayed the Flamingos- go check the match statistics in terms of total shots; Shots on target etc and you will know our girls didn’t deserve to lose- atleast not by so wide a margin. Poot goal keeping let them down very badly throughout the tournament.
We thought the first goal keeper used by the coach- Boniface- against Canada and France was terrible, but the replacement Sylvia Echefu gifted Italy 3 cheap goals, the first leaked underneath her fingers. On the other hand Italy u-17 goal keeper was very sharp and thwarted all Nigerian shots on target- including a superb short in 1st half by Flamingos captain Moshood Sukirat ( no 8).
One major problem, which I mentioned when this pairing was made, was the physicality advantage of the Italy team, and I did say I cant see the Nigerian girls been capable of withstanding the Italian challenge, after their big win against Samoa. They are far taller and fitter than the Flamingos and that advantage was put to full use and the shorter and weaker Nigerian side and Coach Bankole Olowookere had no answer to Italy’s height supremacy.
Well, they tried their best, and I know no African girls team, for now, can go toe-to-toe with top European, USA, Canada, Japan, Korea or Brazil women. Even host Morocco u-17, with better investment in football than most African teams, where thrashed 6-1 by North Korea same evening and I know the Zambian u-17 women are going home tomorrow. African women teams at all levels have a long way to go and it reflects on Fifa women’s ranking, where Nigeria the best ranked team is 36th or thereabout in the world.
Haahahaha….it is no longer “they have more money”….it is now about their size.
In a game of football, your opponents clearly have greater football intelligence than you and say they aren’t better than your players……LMAOOooo….shebi na cross country dem come field come run abi……..LMAOooo
In case you missed it…..Lionel Messi, Sergio Aguero, Enzo Fernández, Rodrigo de paul, Julio Alvarez, Luataro martinez, Angel Di maria…….what am I saying, Argentina can produce a team of 5 footers and still go ahead and win the World Cup.
According to your now popular fallacy, money and investments are automatic producers of talents and football education/ technical and tactical intelligence, yet Morocco has been shipping in basket loads of goals all through this U17 tournament, winning just 1 match out of 4, just like your flamingos………LMAOoooo
Continue cooking up excuses for failure ehn……LMAoooo
Thank God no one takes you and your ramblings seriously…..LMAOoo. I mean, who would do so when 2 draws vs Zimbabwe carries more weight above 2 wins vs Chad……LMAoooo
Watching that game, it was painfully clear that Italy didn’t just win because they were fitter or faster — they won because they were better schooled. Every touch, every run, every press screamed of technical and tactical intelligence. Their spacing was perfect, their transitions smooth, and their understanding of when to press or drop deep was top-class.
I vehemently disagree with you, Papafem. Borrowing from the books of that patriotic Nigerian who calls himself TONY K, the Italian girls were not better than ours, they just have more money.
When we tell them the NFF needs to prioritize caching education above any other thing going forward, so-called patriotic Nigeria will want to bite us.
Imagine if, in addition to their physical agility and durability, those girls also had football sense and tactical intelligence.
No gainsaying, but I don’t see any Nigerian team dominated by local players and led by a local coach getting on the podium of any major tournament in the next 10 years. I hope I am wrong this time.
@Dr Drey, did I hear you say “in the next 10 years? ” See, bro, this kind may not happen again — not in this lifetime, or the next 50 years. These Oyinbos don’t just sit down to “hope” like us. They see a problem, fix it, document it, and build a system around it. We, on the other hand, will set up a prayer chain, sprinkle anointing oil on the football, and wait for angels to deliver tactics from heaven. That’s the difference — they act, we “believe.”
Take China for example. Thirty years ago, they were a basketball joke. The tallest among them could barely high-five your chin. But look at them now — producing seven-footers like factory products for sports where such is a must. Don’t even ask me how they’re doing it; maybe it’s rice, maybe it’s tea, maybe it’s science. I don’t know. What I know is they now produce technically sound giants who can dribble, shoot, and block like machines. Yao Ming alone — 7 foot 6 — is taller than most of our basketball dreams. And you know what’s funny? I can’t remember a single Nigerian basketballer that tall.
Now, let’s talk football. There was a time — yes, in the 90s — when playing Japan was like charity work. It wasn’t if we’d win, but by how many goals we wanted to donate. I still remember that 1995 King Fahd Cup in Saudi Arabia: we treated the Japanese like practice cones. They were running after shadows, and we were doing freestyle. But have you seen Japan play recently? Forget it. These people now play football like engineers with PhDs in precision Everything is on point — movement, spacing, passing, pressing — like they’re programmed by AI.
You see, Japan realized they couldn’t outrun us physically, so they decided to outthink us. They didn’t cry. They didn’t call family meetings. They didn’t shout “enemy of progress.” They reserached. They built academies. They invested in coaches. And now, they play the kind of football that makes you lick your lips and salivate.
Meanwhile, we’re still waiting for “one player that will emerge from nowhere.” Miracles FC, sponsored by wishful thinking.
And now South Africa has joined the chat. Remember when we used to flog them mercilessly — home and away, male and female, senior and junior? Those days are gone. They’ve learned, invested, and evolved. Their federation is serious. Their coaches are learning. Their players are improving. They’re fixing the problem. We’re still forming “big boys”, meanwhile they’ve moved from being our students to becoming our rivals.
And then someone mentioned Coach Aduku of the Falconets. Are you serious? Abeg, who dey deceive who? Did anyone see his Edo Queens team at last year’s CAF Women’s Champions League? That thing was not football; it was public embarrassment. No structure, no rhythm, no idea — just vibes and long balls to nowhere. If that’s the man people are banking on, then I suggest we start praying again — because this one is beyond technical correction.
Let’s tell ourselves the truth. We’ll keep qualifying youth tournaments for female because we’re still miles ahead of many African countries in talent. The success of Super Falcons over the years has inspired many young girls to take to the round leather game. But once we reach the world stage, where other nations have players trained in football universities of tactics and technicalities— not mere academies — reality slaps us like NEPA taking light during a wedding. Those girls from Japan, Spain, France, Italy — they’re products of real football education. We’re products of “God dey.”
Our girls can run, yes. They can fight, yes. They are strong, yes. But you can’t outrun intelligence. Football is no longer about who sweats the most — it’s about who thinks the fastest. And until Nigeria starts investing in coaching education, proper player development, and modern tactics, we’ll keep crying after every 4–0 defeat, wondering why “the grace didn’t work.”
The truth is simple: the world has moved on. We’re still writing motivation where others are writing methodology. Talent is not the problem — ignorance is. Until we stop expecting prayer to replace planning, and miracle to substitute method, we’ll keep watching our teams go from “giant of Africa” to “comedy of the continent.”
Miracles FC lol. Papafem, you no go kill person. Na me be mention Aduku before oh. I didn’t think he coached elsewhere before so I thought he was a greenhorn, a new kid on the block. Like not the Danjuma kind. Tor. I didn’t know he got a reputation before.
Cape Verde for instance just qualified for the FIFA world cup without playoffs unlike some people lol. The women just qualified for WAFCON next year for the first time ever. Both in 2025. When Nigerian football degraded to worse levels.
Maybe we have a football template that is far superior to theirs but it’s taking time for fruition.
You know, I presume, the reason why we mostly invite foreign pros to our senior national teams is for them to idealize the different standards they are exposed to at their various clubs even if only a few are steady rave of the moments and force the implementation on our team blueprint.
Anyway, the good thing in all the current malaise is that nature or fate is very unkind to the unprepared and by the time we don’t amount to credible standards while more African nations become very aggressive at hiding us (see Wafu B competitions already where we are perpetually also rans; when did they start and now on the global stage we are mocking well our past history), we might rouse from our slumber.
We still delude ourselves that we have talents scattered around the 36 states with incompetent coaches tasked to discover them which can read use and dump them for godfather-enabled slots to continue the world embarrassment. In fact our talent pool are more than the entire nation of Cape Verde, for example, but after those nations taste CAF and FIFA money and judiciously put it to good use unlike the “FIFA audits their money with us” fake jibes we have here, we are done for.
I playfully said some times ago our rankings will tank to levels Nigeria will be in pots C or D if we aren’t aggressive in development momentum.
With your expose, it may not be untrue oh and the architects of the foretold doom would have forgotten they entered glasshouse by then.
Is Nigeria redeemable? I think so but not with the brains behind the current lull.
If Eagles qualify for the world cup, it most likely means a 2nd term for the architects of doom at glasshouse in September 2026.
Another 4 years where other more seriousnations might have outfoxed us….
It is well.
Touche….!
Nothing more to add.
According to one popular Nigerian musician of the early 2000s, “wetin I wan talk again”
May your fountain of wisdom never run dry.
Excellent!
This is not news. I said it days ago.
NFF is gradually destroying female football in Nigeria like they did to male football teams.
May God help Nigeria
Disgraceful result!Flying eagles lost in the second round after qualifying as one of the best losers just like the Flamingos.Super eagles too followed in that order BEST LOSERS!!Pathetic!It’s becoming a trend now!
I would have been shocked if it were the other way round.
And just like that, it is the 7th straight match against a European nation THAT WE DIDN’T WIN (D1L6).
Tactical and technical superiority.
But this set was badly assembled after the ghost or fake euphoria of not conceding in 10 friendly matches and scoring 44, yes, 44 goals.
If FIFA hadn’t had best losers (third place) spots, we wouldn’t have reached this stage.
If Samoa had not been inexperienced, we wouldn’t have scored more than a goal too.
My only standout player is the diminutive number 7 girl from benue state, Nguemo Tabitha Terlumun.
Coach should never near this cadet team again.
He’s done his best.
2026 – 2029 editions qualifiers, all hosted by Morocco who qualifies automatically, should be used to try out new coaches every year.
Since Gusau and co are yet to produce a blueprint or template for the playing style of our national teams, this world cup level qualification processes should be used to expose the teams to different coaching philosophy and choose the best one to mould upon.
Of all the 5 African nations that were bulldozed in this tournament (I expect Zambia to fall today), Nigeria was the most experienced of the lot (8 appearances) and should be rubbing shoulders with the best by now.
This is Italy’s 2nd appearance, for crying out loud.
Make we shame small say our cadet teams this year embarrassed us on all levels, whether male or female.
Apologies Super Falconets. I know you’ll play in November but can anything good come out of this Nazareth themed Nigeria cadet football level?
Coach Aduku, over to you.
But definitely, bye bye coach bankole olowookere.
Blind partisanship just cost you the dugout position in likely 4 straight world cups.
It serves you right anyway. You know what you did in your team selections and nature is unforgiving
Aduku will do well hopefully.I don’t want to go into details,i trust he will.
My bad.
Make una no vex for me.
Under 20 women’s world cup is next year September and it’s in the 3rd of 4 rounds in the African qualifications.
We are playing Senegal in the third round next February.
That means officially WE MADE NO PROGRESS IN OUR CADET FOOTBALL IN 2025.
NFF, take your flowers for bringing the beautiful game into disrepute. One comment I read said super Eagles finished as “best losers” for playoff spot, thanks to Eritrean magic; flamingos finished as best losers too after FIFA increased number of participating teams to 24 for the first time (meaning we would have not even played yesterday if it were the old order; the less said about the manu Garba under 17 boys and the zubairu best losers under 20 (where Morocco beat us to the world title we once first got SILVER IN 1989, 36 years ago), the better for us)
No Nigerian referee made it to CAF people trained for afcon 2025, not var, not 4th officials, not match commissioners.
And people are collecting tax payers money for doing nothing in glasshouse.
So the playoffs by eagles next month is the last “engagement” of the year by this incompetent NFF (I don’t rank eagles as serious competition for WAFCON title)
If they were credible and genuine contenders, they shouldn’t be talking playoffs and not forgetting 1 of our AFCON opponents, Tunisia finishing the world cup qualifiers WITHOUT CONCEDING A GOAL as well as regular champions discussants like Morocco, Senegal, Algeria etc.
Can Gusau NFF be trusted to use the same brains that crumbled our football in spectacular odd fashion to dream new dreams and big for our football in 2026? I seriously doubt.
And his disastrous tenure ends in Sept 2026!
So long, Nigerian football, so long!
I hope the damage by then will still be redeemable. And they raked in FIFA and CAF grants for the nonsense our cadet teams played in 2025 – all money, now mist and spirits!
Who will plan friendly games for falcons now that small girls are rising up to challenge our dominion especially as it’s a world cup 2027 decider tournament in March?
(Thankfully, since super Eagles have shown us that playoff spot is not a new low for our football, best 2 losing quarter finalists in next year’s WAFCON would go for the playoffs as well. We already have an aging falcons that if NFF don’t plan friendlies in November and next February windows to incorporate new players – NFF can do anything to save their “papa money” and still expect us to dominate – be sure the other girls whose nations are taking football development seriously (oh, Cape Verde national male team made the 2026 world cup; guess what, the women yesterday qualified for WAFCON next year! That’s progress) would leave us in the dust.
For the first time since winning WAFCON, falcons couldn’t wipe clean Benin Republic in front of a packed home crowd yesterday and we are not smelling danger for a throne that is always up in the air every 2 years unlike euros that’s 4 years AND WITH NOT 8, NOT 12 BUT 16 TEAMS HENCEFORTH!!
It will get harder now to win WAFCON. Before now, only Nigeria, South Africa and Equatorial guinea (who beat SA to win it twice) have done so in 13 editions.
We are not doing any deliberate thing to maintain the momentum for falcons. I weep for Nigerian football – I understand the male in lower levels have not “made progress” ever since MRI became the primary determinants at under 17 level and today’s kids are now wiser and sharper that even with the “age cheating that persists in our under 20”, not allegedly, we still can’t dominate african football, let alone compete globally.
Long live the poaching of foreign born pros for our senior teams.
I’m even now frightened by the level of coaching exposure at the lower rungs of the game. They can’t sponsor themselves for courses, NFF can’t sponsor them or even get sponsors to sponsor them to sponsor the coaches the technical department just spring up on us anyhow.
Our deliverance long, I beg.
Make other nations still use style pause for us to catch up. Time should wait too.
Haba!
After many years of being the envy of several African nations in the game of football due to our early exposure!
God no dey forbid bad thing sha! We are “sowing what we are reaping” abi na the other way round I suppose write.
E be no hard to do the right things if not say some demons want misery to settle in the land.
Super Falcons stands very little chance of retaining their title which was won in Morocco early this year,sadly.It’s unlikely to happen in my opinion going by what i have seen lately.
Coach Magudu just like his previous successful local coaches tends to follow a downward trend after major successes.
The games against Benin especially the one played in Abeokuta is just a revelation of what to expect in the future for the Super falcons.
Then again,Magudu’s romance with Oshoala will be his achilles heel.She has shown repeatedly she’s out of form,yet getting into the team each time the squad is announced.As a result of that shutting down opportunities for younger prospects making their marks around the world.
Despite this,his choice of Deborah Abiodun over a more experienced and better Halimatu Ayinde who is available for selection is another danger awaiting.In form Gift Monday overlooked for Oshoala who sadly,not living up to expectation to put it right she’s out of form yet getting green light from the manager.You could deduce Magudu has belief in Oshoala’s talent,also a need to restore her confidence but we all know it’s not working,she hasn’t got the legs anymore,starting her against Benin in Abeokuta may have cost us victory but the stubborn coach will carry on until his questionable decisions hurt the Super Falcons and it’s fans.
I do expect the manager to use opportunities in the coming windows to bring new players to the team,i mean quality players anywhere he can find them around the world.
Our players are ageing the likes of Rinsola Babatunde should be invited in the next windows as well the Payne sisters if they’re active.
Magudu’s Falcons laboured in Abeokuta against an opponent not classed a top nation in female football in the continent is worrying.
Going forward I expect the coaches meet a standard of professionalism,that surely will help move the team forward.
This team must learn from their mistakes.
When I saw the tribalistic list I promised myself to boycott the matches and I wasn’t proven wrong, bunch of irresponsible human beings!
A Mr Nice, what was wrong with the list. was it not 2 Igbo keepers that cost us this tournament. Oya lets go their
Lol. Make e resemble balance na where ideally only one of the 3 would have been used.
I read elsewhere the one that was in goal for the last 2 matches has BEEN INACTIVE FOR THE PAST 2 YEARS!
NFF is full of saboteurs. Very wicked and demonic people.
I can only imagine the inactivity status of the outfield players.
Gusau and co will empty Nigeria of its remaining glory by the time they finish their term next year.
In 2025? On a global stage? Both the coaches and technical department and NFF are crazy for treating our next generation of female stars with kid gloves.
We haven’t convinced any new foreign born for falcons since Waldrum left. Imade will soon be snatched by Spain.
Yet, they have mind to prop up inactive players at this time?
Strange the first tribe that came to mind is Igbo??!From all i know Nigeria have many tribes.Why would you assume Mr.Nice is from the Igbo tribe?