The Nigeria U17 football national team girls, Flamingos have safely arrived in the capital of Egypt, Cairo, on Friday ahead of their return leg encounter against Egypt for a place at the U-17 FIFA Women’s Woeld Cup.
Flamingos won the first meeting at the Moshood Abiola Stadium in Abuja 4-0 last weekend, thanks to a brace from Omowunmi Bello and a goal each from Opeyemi Ajakaiye and Miracle Usani.
The Flamingos contingent departed Nigeria on Thursday for the game is slated for Saturday at the Petrosports Stadium, Cairo.
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The winner of the encounter between Flamingos and Egypt on aggregate will face the winner of the Ethiopia vs. South Africa fixture for the final round of the qualifiers.
This year’s FIFA U17 Women’s World Cup will hold in India, from 11th – 30th October.
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The encounter between Flamingos and Egypt will kick off at 10pm Nigeria time.
Flamingos Squad
Goalkeepers:
Faith Omilana
Linda Jiwuaku
Defenders:
Blessing Sunday
Comfort Folorunsho
Tumininu Adeshina
Olamide Oyinlola
Josephine Edafe
Miracle Usani
Confidence Nwoha
Mistura Yusuf
Midfielders:
Blessing Emmanuel
Taiwo Afolabi
Chidera Okenwa
Joy Igbokwe
Forwards:
Omowunmi Bello
Mercy Itimi
Alvine Dah-Zossu
Anastasia Atume
Opeyemi Ajakaiye
Yetunde Ayantosho
Judith Okah
Bisola Mosaku
Raheemot Adebayo
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_First Leg Result In The Cooler_
The Flamingos are on the cusp of qualifying for the last round of the Under 17 women’s world cup tournament in India later in the year.
Any sort of draw or slim victory will see our young ladies sidestep their Egyptian hostesses later tonight.
Though leading with a bumper 4 goals to nil from the first leg in Abuja, coach Bankole insists that they will approach this game as if this first leg never took place.
“Tactically, we will be approaching this game afresh with total disregard for the 4 goals we scored in the first leg,” said the coach.
“We have put those goals in the cooler. This will be like the first leg. We have acclimatized well and my girls are fully ready to obtain a favourable result.” Concluded the coach.
It has been a hugely product and eloquently flamboyant qualifying campaign from the Flamingos. They have scored 12 goals thus far and they definitely look on course to add to that tally.
Opeyemi Ajakaye is 3rd with two other players from Morocco and Tanzania in the goalscorers chart with 4 goals. But she still has a way to go yet to catch up with Tanzania’s Clara Luvanga who leads the table with 7 goals.
What is little known tit bit is that the Flamingos are actually the weakest of all Nigeria’s national teams franchise across gender and age range. This is because they are the only ones yet to attain a podium finish in any FIFA world cup tournament.
Their best position remains the quarter final finish which they attained in 2010, 2012 and 2014.
Will Bankole’s babes be able to break that glass ceiling this year? It remains to be seen but they have to qualify for the world cup first.
And they will be on track with a favourable result against Egypt tonight in their usual swashbuckling style.
Correction in the 8th paragraph:
***What is little known tit bit is that the Flamingos are actually the weakest of all Nigeria’s national teams franchise across gender in under age football. This is because they are the only ones yet to attain a podium finish in any FIFA world cup tournament.***
*Nigeria’s U-17 Flamingos Mummify Their Egyptian Counterparts In Cairo*
The intrepid U-17 Flamingos of Nigeria ran down the gauntlet yesterday night to vanquish Egypt with 2 goals to nil thereby keeping their hopes of qualifying for the world cup alive.
Faced with a hostile home crowd and the bitterly cold weather in Cairo, it took only 5 minutes for deadly Opeyemi Ajakaye to put Nigeria ahead in thrilling style from a well worked manoeuvre.
Another carefully choreographed move gave birth to Nigeria’s second goal in 14 minutes after Adeshina’s crafty corner kick picked out Aminat Bello who in turn did the needful with a goal of deluxe quality.
2:0 it ended with the Flamingos winning 6:0 on aggregate.
Coach Bankole, who was immensely proud of his girls, said afterwards : “this particular match was difficult to be honest. Number one, the Egyptian home support was one thing but the weather as well was unbelievably harsh.
This was way beyond what we had expected. The conditions were tough but my girls really tried. We got the result we wanted,” said the Yoruba coach.
Nigeria will now face either South Africa or Ethiopia in the final round of qualifiers.
“Once we know the team we are facing, we will carry out a reconnaissance mission to study them so that we can map out the right strategies to overcome them. That is how we have approached all the other teams in this series,” said coach Bankole.
The Flamingos indeed showed character and determination, not only to win this match, but to ensure that they kept their much prized clean sheet.
The Egyptian coach made it quite clear in Abuja that they would not make it easy for Nigeria in Cairo and so it proved. Playing the 10 pm Cairo time was always going to be seen by cynical Nigeria fans like myself as a ploy by the Egyptians to take advantage of their bitterly cold weather.
And coach Bankole and his girls were visibly rattled by this. His girls got their goals quite early before the effect of the weather could really set in and they had to do a lot of defending in the course of the match to keep Egypt at bay; arguably more defending than they had been used to thus far in this qualifying series.
In the 62nd minute,Egypt’s Hda Mostha and Laila Zahar were trojan horses to Nigeria’s defence with menacing and insidious incursions that had to be repelled. Then in the dying minutes, Nadia and Mosteha combined to smelt a save out of goalkeeper Omilana’s freezing fingers.
But the Flamingos weathered the storm.
More sterner tests await them at the world cup in India. But there is the little business of navigating the final round of qualifiers where either South Africa or Ethiopia lie in wait.