Nigeria’s U20 girls, the Falconets, have qualified for the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup finals.
The Falcons qualified after a brace from Opeyemi Ajakaiye earned them a 2-0 second-leg win over Burundi at the MKO Abiola National Stadium on Saturday.
They qualified 3-0 on aggregate, having won 1-0 away last Sunday in the final round of the qualifying race in Africa.
Similar to the first leg in Dar es Salaam, the Nigerian girls generated many scoring opportunities but struggled to convert them.
In the second minute, Opeyemi Ajakaye, the leading scorer for the FIFA U17 World Cup bronze-winning Flamingos two years ago, missed a volley wide when it seemed more straightforward to score.
In the 15th minute, Chiamaka Okwuchukwu swung the ball into the visitors’ box from the wing, but the team’s leading scorer Janet Akekoromowei failed to convert the opportunity.
It was Okwuchukwu’s turn to miss in the 34th minute when she could not convert a pull-out by Ajakaiye.
Eight minutes after the restart, Ajakaiye went on a solo run into the visitors’ eighteen-yard box, only to finish with a weak shot that was easily collected by the Burundi goalkeeper, Amissa Inarukundo.
Ajakaiye, who was assisted by Akekoromowei, broke the deadlock in the 78th minute. Ajakaiye then scored the second goal on the dot of time to put the Falconets through to the tournament in Colombia later this year.
Nigeria has been ever-present at the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup, since FIFA launched it as an U19 tournament in Canada 22 years ago, finishing as runners-up in 2010 and 2014, and reaching the semi-finals in Japan in 2012.
