Nigeria’s Falconets hammered debutants New Caledonia 10-1 in their final Group F game at the 2026 FIFA U-20 women’s World Cup in Poland on Sunday.
The win means the Falconets advanced to the round of 16 after finishing second on four points.
Spain topped the group on nine points after ending their group campaign with a 3-1 win against China also on Sunday.
It was a must-win for the Falconets, who entered the game with just one point from two matches (a 2-0 loss to Spain and a 0-0 draw with China).
Ramotalahi Kareem broke the deadlock from the penalty spot in the 17th minute before Rebecca Adegbemile made it 2-0 two minutes later.
Benfica new signing Janet Akekoromowei added a third in the 23rd minute, while Kareem was on target again in the 27th minute to give Nigeria a commanding 4-0 lead.
Also Read: EXCLUSIVE: 2026 U-20 WWC — How Falconets Can Unlock New Caledonia, Advance (Data Analysis)
Moses Aduku’s side continued their dominance after the break, with Winner David making it 5-0 in the 60th minute.
Kareem completed her hat-trick four minutes later, before Tosin Rafiu added another in the 70th minute.
Adegbemile scored her second of the match in the 74th minute, while David added two more goals in the 75th and 90+4th minutes to complete her hat-trick.
New Caledonia managed a consolation goal through Joceline Kourevi in the 89th minute.
By James Agberebi
4 Comments
Nigeria 10:1 New Caledonia – Retrospective Review
I wasn’t going to report on this match because the Falconets had no business losing or drawing against New Caledonia. However, there are some noticeable themes to draw out of the match plus winning by 10 goals scored is worthy of praise.
The Falconets played with a 4-2-4 formation which was effective against a team like New Caledonia. Will they avoid punishment with this formation against a technical team like England?
Despite the win, there were still instances of poor passes, poor decision making, poor technique, here and there.
Our wingers held on to the ball for too long and would execute one touch too many. New Caledonia scored with 1 of the only blatant 2 chances they had at our goal: a 50% success rate.
We still do not display nest, pristine, eye catching passing routines. It’s all formulaic and basic.
However, most of our goals were well taken. The players looked sharp in places and several players demonstrated neat movements and fine first touch with the ball. The Falconets have mobile players capable of turning on the after-burners.
I particularly enjoyed the in swing cross and header for the 2nd goal, the looping header for the 3rd, the lobbed shot for the 4th and the long range riffled bullets for the 6th and 7th goals.
I also have to admit that the quality of majority of the crosses today were as glittering as gold.
The corner kicks, though these produced goals, were a mixed bag – some were good, others, forgettable.
R. Kareem has always been a player after my heart and it was nice to see her bag a hat-trick a delicious goals.
But time is running out for her to come out of the shadows. She can be very underwhelming as she was at times here. But, make no mistakes, if properly nurtured, she will go places.
It’s a pity Joseph was hauled off early, perhaps to preserve her for the second round. Janet’s bagging just 1 goal was a surprise to me.
Anyway, congratulations but I am still not won over. There are glimpses of acceptable talents sprinkled here and there but, as a team, this team and their coach have a long way to go to convince me.
This is an acceptable bully and humiliation. A team that keep improving in a tournament will go far. Can you girls continue to improve and see how far you can go?
A thoroughly deserved victory and scoreline from the Falconets today. They played with much maturity, fluidity and crisp passing and link up play from defence to the wings and the final third. The goals could have been far more (with a whopping 22 shorts on target from the Falconets) but for wastefulness in front of goal, and the heroics of the usually suspect fatty-bonbon” New Caledonian U-20 Women goalkeeper turning up to make several, crucial saves on the day.
Its like Moses Aduku and his wards had their systems and tactical play right today. Its easy to say the opposition is weak and have nothing to write home about, but you still have to do your workings to beat and score relentlessly against a deep, low block team like the New Caledonians have deployed to frustrate the Nigerian girls!
The goals came from all corners of the pitch- from the wings (both sides) leading to decent pull outs that were converted by good Headed goals, and from Central midfield- even a defender had two goals already. Well done girls, you have redeemed yourselves today and let’s see what happen in the knockout stage.
It is now settled that the Falconets will meet England U-20 women in the knock out round, and Aduku must prepare hus wards adequately against a more technically drilled England women. With the type of display from the Falconets today, if they apply themselves well, use their pace, dribbling skill and physicality appropriately against the English team, I do not have any fears that they can cause England lots of problem and beat them and qualify for the Qtr-finals.
Amusing to see the New Caledonia ladies celebrating after the final whistle, while Nigeria, who had just won the game by 10 goals to 1, were subdued and almost indifferent.
The NC ladies celebrated their goal as if they had just won the world cup. Congrats to them. It was a beauty of a goal. Yes, it came from a careless pass by our left back, but she had a lot to do from that distance, and she executed very well, beating our goalie all ends up with a left footed strike.
As for Nigeria, the opposition is just too weak to conclude that we are finally back on track. The spaces NC left for our strikers to exploit, the naive defending, the almost non-existent marking, the awful goalkeeping especially, these are things that will not happen against a superior opponent in England, who we will be up against in the next round.