Nigeria’s U-17 women’s team, Flamingoes, thrashed Guinea 6-1 in the first-leg first round of the 2020 FIFA U-17 World Cup qualifier in Conakry on Saturday, Completesports.com reports.
Yemisi Samuel bagged a hat-trick in the 11th, 85th and 91st minutes of the encounter.
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Rofiat Imuran scored two goals in the 38th and 65th minutes while Chinyere Kalu opened scoring on three minutes.
Guinea pulled a goal back with nine minutes remaining in the game.
The Flamingoes will welcome Guinea to Lagos for the reverse fixture which comes up on March 14.
By James Agberebi
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COMMENTS
The Flamingoes of Nigeria took a step closer to Under 17 World Cup qualification with a much expected 6:1 away mauling of Guinea today as many followers of Nigerian women’s football are still rather unhappy that the Falcons will not be playing at the Olympics this year.
Whether or not the Olympics will hold to schedule is dependent on how contained the global health epidemic of the Corona Virus is contained in the coming months.
Back to the Flamingoes, it is safe to assume that Yesimi Samuel and her colleagues will get the job done in Lagos on 13 March.
That is the easy part, it is what lies beyond that, that should give indications to the teenage ladies that greater is the threat that lies in front of them
On 1st of March, Ghana’s under 17 women’s team overcame their Liberian hostesses 2:0 to set up a second leg in a fortnight which they are expected to triumph at home.
When that happens as expected, their next assignment will be to face our under 17 ladies in a winner takes all home and away set of fixtures between 1st and 17 May.
Those encounters will be tantalising indeed as the Ghanaians (male or female teams) will rather die on the pitch than lose to any Nigerian side.
To be honest, I would have loved if our ladies would be facing Uganda, Morocco or Zambia in the next round – not Ghana.
Whereas Ghana qualified for the last Under-17 women’s world cup in 2018 where they reached the second round, Nigeria failed to qualify having been stopped on the second round of qualifiers by another bitter rival Cameroon.
So, whilst I celebrate today’s result against Guinea and look forward to the return leg with glee, it is what lies immediately after that that presents me with mild worry.
With the Falcons not being in the Olympics, I will really love one of our women’s teams to participate in a global sporting fiesta this year.
To do that, the Under 17 ladies will most certainly have to push themselves to their limits to succeed at the same stage their predecessors failed two years ago.