Falconets. Photo: brila
Nigeria’s Falconets and their Cameroonian counterparts played out an exciting 2-2 draw in the first leg of their 2018 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup qualifier, yesterday.
The match at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium in Benin City, Edo State saw the impressive visitors rise up to the occasion against all odds.
Nigeria got the lead inside the second minute when Vincent Precious scored the opener to set the stadium on fire.
[a]d
Cameroon restored parity six minutes later, when Ngah Manga Marie scored, thereby bringing her side back into the game.
The visitors continued to threaten in attack and in no time went ahead through Alice Kameni, who provided a fine finish to make it 2-1, putting Cameroon on course for victory.
However, the visitors’ hopes of claiming an away win were dashed in the 54th minute when Osaretin Ikekhua struck a free kick to make it 2-2 and tee up the second match perfectly.
The return leg will take place in Yaoundé in a fortnight, with the winner on aggregate picking one of Africa’s tickets to the sixth FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup taking place in Uruguay, later this year.
Nigeria has participated in every edition of the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup since it began in New Zealand in 2008, reaching the quarter-finals in Trinidad and Tobago (2010), Azerbaijan (2012) and Costa Rica (2014).
