Nigeria’s U-17 women’s national team, the Flamingos, have qualified for the quarter-finals of the ongoing FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in Morocco after defeating Mexico 2-1.
The Nigerian girls secured the Round of 16 victory on Thursday in Rabat to set up a last-eight encounter against Venezuela on Sunday.
The Flamingos started the match with attacking intent, although Mexico created early opportunities through Citlalli Reyes and Natalia Perez in the fourth and seventh minutes.
Nigeria responded with efforts from Kanyinsola Yusuf and Mary Dunstan in the 29th and 30th minutes.
The breakthrough came in the 40th minute when Oluebube Umejiaku produced an impressive solo effort, beating three defenders before slotting the ball past Mexican goalkeeper Lopez.
Nigeria went into the break with the advantage after a dominant first-half performance.
The Flamingos maintained their attacking approach after the restart, but head coach Hakeem Busari was forced to make a change after Oluwakemi Adegbuyi sustained a knock in the first half.
Precious Oscar came on as her replacement.
Nigeria doubled its lead in the 71st minute through Mary Dunstan, who finished from close range to register her first goal of the tournament.
Mexico continued to push for a comeback and eventually pulled one back in the 10th minute of added time through Camila Campos, whose effort beat Nigerian goalkeeper Jane Ijirigho.
Despite the late goal, the Flamingos held on to secure the victory and progress to the quarter-finals.
Their next opponents, Venezuela, booked their place in the last eight after edging Germany in their Round of 16 encounter on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Grassroots Sports Development, Anthony Adeyinka Adeboye, pledged N2 million to the Nigerian team following the victory.
The Acting General Secretary of the Nigeria Football Federation, Emmanuel Ikpeme, also pledged N1 million.
In other Round of 16 matches, Ghana qualified for the quarter-finals after defeating Argentina 5-4 on penalties following a 1-1 draw.
Ghana will face the winners of the encounter between Kenya and Japan.
However, Morocco’s campaign ended after the host nation suffered a heavy defeat to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea).
