Nigeria’s Falconets began their campaign at the 2026 FIFA U-20 women’s World Cup on a losing note, after falling to a 2-0 defeat to Spain in Monday’s Group F opener, completesports.com reports.
Goals in each half by Marisa Garcia and Alba Cerrato earned Spain a perfect start to the tournament.
Spain started strongly and controlled much of the match and created multiple early chances but were denied by Falconets goalkeeper Ineoma Uzoma.
The Spaniards eventually took the lead on 13 minutes thanks to Garcia, who finished a strong run and cross from Noe Bejarano.
The Falconets grew into the game and posed some threat on transitions and were almost rewarded but Spain goalkeeper Laia López made an important one-on-one save against Folajomi Olabiyi.
Also Read: U-20 WWC: Falconets Ready To Make Big Statement— Aduku
Cerrato then sealed the win on 73rd minute finishing with a left-footed shot which beat the Falconets keeper at her near post.
Spain are in second place behind group leaders China, who had beaten New Caledonia 5-0 earlier on Monday.
The Falconets would hope to bounce back from the defeat to Spain in their second fixture against China on Thursday, September 10.
By James Agberebi
2 Comments
With all the we are ready noise. Shioo.
Well earned victory by the Spanish U-20 women who outplayed the Falconets in every aspect of the game and a 2-0 scoreline against the Falconets almost flattered the Falconets, whose inexperience and poor coaching told through the 90 minutes of play.
I predicted it was going to be a tough day at the Office for the Falconets, opening their account at the 2026 U-20 WWC against a well drilled and very experienced ball juggling Spanish women, the full squad members skilled and having received excellent coaching from world class clubs, like Barcelona, Real Madrid, Real Sociedad, Atletico Madrid and Juventus senior women team, and then drilled by a world class women coach in the mold of David Aznar.
In the end the talent, experience and expert coaching of the Spaniards won the match, and the Falconets were overran and Moses Aduku and his wards had no clue, and but for decent goalkeeping by Uzoma in Falconets goal the score line would have been more telling! But even so, the Falconets had their moments and could have scored 1 or 2 goals themselves, if they played with more confidence, and overcame fear and over-respect of the Spanish women team. At the end a 2-0 score by the Spaniards was well earned.
Let’s see how they perform against the Chinese and the New Caledonian women in the next group matches, as the fear and respect they showed the Spaniards today would be out of the window.
Where is Janet Akekoromowei, the big, physical and strong former Bayelsa Queens striker, now with Benfica feminine in Portugal? I didn’t see her on the starting list nor was she listed in the Substitutes Bench or was she injured or not in the squad?This was the type of match, you needed her to bully the Spaniards defences to submission, but suddenly she was no where to be found.