Nigeria’s Falconets held a strong Chinese side to a goalless draw, in their second Group F match, at the 2026 FIFA U-20 women’s World Cup on Thursday in Poland, completesports.com reports.
The Falconets went into the game on the back of a 2-0 defeat to Spain in their first fixture, while China opened their campaign with a dominant 5-0 win against New Caledonia.
Head coach Moses Aduku made changes which saw the inclusion of Benfica new signing Janet Akekoromowei after she missed the opener with Spain.
China started brightly and in the opening two minutes, Li Chenyu’s long-range effort from the left hit the crossbar and Huang Jiaxin later fired a free-kick over from the edge of the area on 24 minutes.
The Nigerian team created threats of their own with Akekoromowei going close in the 32nd minute with a free-kick which forced a strong save from Chinese goalkeeper Liu Chen.
Later in the first half, a defensive error allowed a Falconets counter; and Akekoromowei’s low shot from outside the box on 37 minutes slid wide.
In the 53rd minute Chen Ruilin forced a spill from the Nigerian keeper with an angled shot that went wide.
Also Read: U-20 WWC: Falconets Will Bounce Back Against China, Captain Uzoma Assures
The Falconets were awarded a penalty on 63 minutes for a handball by Huang Jiaxin but after a review by VAR it was overturned.
In the 69th minute China Yu Xingyue saw her shot go over the bar, and Yu Jiaqi’s header from a cross was saved by the Nigerian goalkeeper on 73 minutes.
The result keeps Nigeria’s knockout hopes alive but leaves them needing a strong performance (and favourable results elsewhere) in their final group match against New Caledonia on Sunday, September 13.
Earlier on Thursday, Spain sealed qualification to the round of 16 after hammering New Caledonia 11-0.
The top two in the group advance automatically, along with the four best third-placed teams overall.
By James Agberebi
5 Comments
Nigeria vs China (0:0) Retrospective Review
It was a match as dull as dishwater as Nigeria and China slugged it out to a dour draw today in their second group matches.
It will be easy to criticise Coach Aduku to the high heavens today as his girls were most uninspiring in the match: the Falconets never looked like scoring, and their passing routines were ineffective and insufficient to unlock a stubborn China defence.
However, China were ultra-defensive up to the 65th minute when they decided to be more adventurous, leading to several danger moments for Nigeria. It was a very cagey affair and a match that will never live long in the memory.
Where do I start? China were astute defensively. Their shape was impenetrable, impervious, impermeable, and they defended in packs like wolves. There were often 3 to 4 Chinese players against the 1 Nigerian who was on the ball anywhere on the pitch. This frustrated Nigeria a lot; however, it also meant China too couldn’t create clear-cut scoring chances as they were busy hounding Nigerians off the ball like hyenas.
It was going to be a tough, tedious, frustrating day in the Office for the Falconets.
Their plight was compounded by their wayward passing routines, poor decision-making, lack of variety in their gameplay, and poor technique in basics like shooting, crossing, and playing long balls.
The shape looked like a 4-4-1-1, which looked good on paper, but well suited to China’s defensive game plan as our wingers – Joseph and Oscar – were effectively cut off from the rest of the team with centre forward Mamadu looking lost. Support striker Janet had some eye-catching moments which showcased her quality but, all in all, China’s game plan of containing, curtailing and choking our forward line worked to perfection.
When China decided to be ambitious and go forward, kudos to our defenders who used their physicality to frustrate Chinese strikers. I think our goalkeeper pulled off one fantastic save from a goal-bound Chinese header and another near-post low save. We looked vulnerable when China charged forward, but they also were vulnerable to our counterattack, one of which led to a penalty that was overturned after good work from Oscar down the right flank and Janet down the middle.
Yes, the Falconets’ game has to be measured against China’s approach. Even at that, the Falconets were not inspiring at all. It was clear early on that China were playing divide-and-conquer with their tight multiple-women marking. Yet our coach had no answer to neutralise or counter China’s approach for the duration of the match – very poor. It was frustrating watching – for 90 minutes – our wingers running into a cul-de-sac of 3-4 Chinese players, unable to go to the byline to pull out meaningful crosses, if any at all. Our midfielders were not given any room to breathe whilst our entire forward line was suffocated.
And our coach had no answers, no tricks, no magic! None at all! For the duration.
Nigeria 0:0 China.
Zero chances created this coach is not good enough let’s be honest. They have the ball but can’t use the ball. What a terrible team and disgusting to watch.
I am yet to see any Nigerian game so far in Poland.
However,going through the list,I realised Moses Aduku included 16yrs olds in the starting lineup.This may have affected the performance of the team because players of that age in Nigeria,are not well developed to measure up with the standards required at under 20 world cup.
I am sure we have good mature players in their 19’s and 20’s to prosecute this world cup.Any young player included in their 16’s must be a special talent,not just good,but fantastic talent with an innate or natural ability..Otherwise rather than mess up our world cup at under 20,isn’t it wise to develop from under 17 before graduating to under 20?
Meanwhile,the absence of the falconet’s captain and best player Kindness Ifeanyi could be another reason we should look at.Kindness is that kind of talent who make things happen for the team especially when they are struggling,but due to administrative errors,she’s not part of the team,her presence and that of the captain was a huge blow for the Falconets ..
Very terrible display by the Super Falcons today, and I wonder which match CS reporters watched to call SF “impressive display.”
Wrong and uncoordinated passes, trying to do too much with dribbles that end up gifting possession to the Chinese ladies, poor decision making by the wingers in failing to put in crosses to the box, and indiscriminate shooting over the bar from far away from the opposition goal, instead of moving the ball.
The defenders and midfielders were just huffing the ball into the Chinese half with no direction.
Apart from poor coaching, the players themselves were too immature and lacking in the basics of football, so I don’t see how the Falconets have been anywhere near “impressive” today. The draw suits the Chinese women better as they now have 4 points and +5 Goal difference on the table sitting pretty in 2nd position behind Spain on 6 points and a +13 Goal difference. Nigeria sits on 3rd position on 1 point with a -2 Goal difference and need a miracle to qualify from the group- except through the number crunching calculations of best 3rd place qualifiers.
Their luck is that New Caledonia is a generous points and goals donor. When I saw their oversized goalkeeper, I already knew Spain was going to create a FIFA goal-scoring record with them.
They shipped 5 against China and 11 against Spain. Hopefully, they retain the same goalkeeper against Nigeria.