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Despite winning the first leg of their final qualifying round for the 2026 FIFA U-20 women’s World Cup against Malawi, Falconets head coach Moses Aduku said he is not satisfied with the total display of his players.
The Falconets overcame a resolute Malawian side 2-0 in Ikenne following an own goal in the first minute of the second half and a strike from Kindness Ifeanyi.
It was a game that saw the Falconets miss numerous scoring opportunities which would have put the tie to bed.
Reflecting on the game during the post-match press conference, Aduku believes is players can do more.
“We thank God for the win, in the first half we were not too good in terms of coordination and secondly opportunity missed but thank God we came into the second half and scored the goals.
“But still I’m not satisfied with the total performance because I believe we can do more, though I can’t say I’m disappointed in my attackers because they scored two goals. In the game of football you can get 100 chances and don’t convert any.”
On what he thinks the approach of the Malawians would be in the reverse fixture, Aduku said:“I know when we get to Malawi they will come out to play, they were trying to play defensive in the first half most especially. They will come out to play and we will have opportunities and I give you my word we will score the first goal (in Malawi).
“We will be tactical in our approach, we are two goals up and in Malawi we will not just go defensive, we will take the game to them and see if we can get a goal and I know my girls can do that.
“It will be easier in Malawi because if they sit back and we were able to create chances like this, now they will come out to play definitely we will have chances to score and I think we have a good defence and our goalkeeper is not that bad so we are on course.”
Also, on his assessment of his team in the qualifiers:”What I have seen in my team we grow with every match. I remember it was 1-0 in Rwanda and when we came to Ibadan it was 4-0. When we played Senegal it was 1-0 in Nigeria and 2-1 in Senegal, so I believe the Malawians won’t be an exception. The girls will do better in Malawi, this is not Nigerian setting where you believe you must win at home.”
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Nigeria’s Falconets 2:0 Malawi – Retrospective Reflection
It was solid line up that Coach Moses Aduku put out, to be fair. The NWFL Hotshot Tactician clearly wanted to leave no stone unturned going to the second leg in a fortnight.
What with Igbokwe, Adeshina, Ifeanyi and Nwocha headlining the starting 11, we were up for some truly fascinating football.
But, did they deliver?
Malawi have to be applauded.
They put up stiff resistance and their goalkeeper, ever so eager to run out, bailed them out several times from Nigeria’s dangerous long balls before she got injured (coming out, again) only for Kindness Ifeanyi to stab into the resultant empty net for Nigeria’s coup-de-grace in 57 minutes.
Before then, in 46 minutes, a cross from the left, after fancy footwork from the winger, was met by a deflected shot that gave Nigeria a 1 goal lead – the match ended 2:0 to Nigeria.
I went into the encounter praying that Nigeria’s performance would make it worth my while. And, while there were no moments of magic from the Falconets, they did the business.
They delivered crosses into the opposition 18 yard box with varying degrees of quality – several were decent, some were forgettable.
Their passes were neat and tidy, with the odd dangerous through balls into opposition defences to spice up proceedings. But, nothing here really pumped up my blood or got me to the edge of my seat.
The Falconets won the midfield battles and restrained Malawi, stopping them from making meaningful inroads into the Falconets’ 18 yard box.
It was nice to see Nigeria’s fullbacks overlapping to deliver decent crosses plus some players produced pockets of passing interplays that were pleasurable but not always penetrative or poetic.
I recall a wicked free kick from the Falconets in the second half that smashed against the crossbar; wicked! They could even have been 1:0 up as early as the 5th minute had Queen Joseph and Mary Mamudu not bumped into each other inside Malawi’s 18 yard box before Queen made a mess of the shot!
All in all, it was a professionally produced, purposefully presented powerful performance that failed to produce polish or panache in places, but succeeded in producing the needed points in a manner that the players can be proud of.
Well done to Aduku and the Girls.