Nigeria’s Flamingoes have qualified for the quarter finals of the FIFA
Under 17 World Cup tournament in Costa Rica, after coming from behind to
beat Colombia 2-1.Nigeria had earlier beaten China in their first group game by the same margin.
Needing
all three points to stay alive in Group D, Colombia burst out of the
blocks with a third minute goal as Angie Rodriguez looped a header from a
perfect Nancy Acosta cross over the head of stranded goalkeeper
Onyinyechukwu Okeke.
Nigeria drew level just past the midway point
of the opening half with Joy Bokiri curling in a perfectly flighted
free-kick from the edge of the penalty area, FIFA.com reports.
Nigeria
took the lead for the first time approaching the hour mark as some
sloppy marking from a corner allowed the tall figure of Uchenna Kanu to
nod the ball in unchallenged at the back post.
Midfielder Ihuoma
Onyebuchi then rattled the Colombia crossbar with a first time strike
from distance with the South Americans increasingly on the back foot.
Colombia
goalkeeper Monica Florez memorably pulled off four successive blocks
during one almighty goalmouth scramble as they desperately hung on.
The
win leaves Nigeria sharing top spot with Mexico, while Colombia will
now tackle China PR with each seeking their maiden points of the
competition. Both Nigeria and Mexico automatically qualified from their
group.
0 comments:
Post a Comment