- Safiu Kehinde
The Nigerian Under 17 Women’s team has,on Wednesday, cruised past New Zealand in 4-1 win at their opening match of the 2024 FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup.
The match, played at the Cibao Stadium in Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic, saw the Flamingos run riot against New Zealand to record their first victory of the tournament.
Two minutes into the game, Shakirat Moshood opened put Flamingos into the lead with Taiwo Adegoke doubling it in the 13th minute to give the team a good advantage.
Faridat Abdulwahab would score the third goal in the 28th minute to take the game beyond their opponents by the end of the first half of the match.
Meanwhile , the New Zealand girls fought back but they could not convert any of their goal scoring chances before the end of the first half.
The Flamingos continued to dominate the game in the second half as Taiwo Afolabi duly scored the fourth goal in the 55th minute.
However, Hannah Saxon went on to score New Zealand’s only goal in the 60th minute to reduce the deficit to 4-1 before the blow of the final whistle.
Flamingos will now, in their next game on Saturday face Ecuador, who beat host nation Dominican Republic 2-0 later on Wednesday.
Nigeria will end their Group A campaign on Tuesday when they take on the host nation at the Felix Sanchez Stadium in Santo Domingo.
According to reports, Nigeria have participated in every edition of the competition, finishing in the semi-finals in the last edition at India in 2022.
That was the closest they have ever got to winning the competition.