Guinea 2016: Falconets through to final round

The U-20 Women National Team, Falconets, have qualified for the final round of the African qualifying series for the 2016 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup, courtesy of a 4-1 aggregate defeat of their counterparts from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

2012 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup top goalscorer Chinwendu Ihezuo was the heroine of the two legs, scoring both goals in Abuja on Saturday, to add to her goal in Kinshasa two weeks ago, when Nigeria beat the hosts 2-1.

Ihezuo scored her first after only seven minutes at the National Stadium, Abuja, when she capitalized on a defensive mistake by the Congolese and raced unchallenged to slot the ball past goalkeeper Kashala Khonde.

The Congolese refused to be deterred, and played impressively with the petite Salu Lengi, Monique Kipoy and Joelle Muadi showing good skills.

However, the game was all but over after only five minutes into the second half, when Ihezuo again capitalized on a defensive error by the Congolese off a long ball, and held on to secure her brace.

The Falconets, runner-up of the last edition of the competition, will now take on the winner of the fixture between South Africa and Zambia, for a place at the 2016 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup finals in Papua New Guinea.

Falconets depart for U-20 Women’s World Cup

The U-20 Women National Team, also known as Falconets, flew out of the country on Monday for a 24 –day final camping programme in Canada ahead of this year’s FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup finals taking place in the same country.

A delegation of 24 players and 11 officials, led by NFF Chief Technical Officer, Siji Lagunju, flew aboard a Lufthansa Airline airplane from Abuja to Frankfurt, from where it would connect another flight to Moncton, Canada.

Head Coach Peter Dedevbo said on Monday that his girls are focused on a mission of doing the country and the continent proud in North America.

“We have a squad of able, courageous and confident players and I believe we have the capacity to go all the way in Canada,” Dedevbo said.

It would be recalled that Nigeria has featured in all previous FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup finals since the event was launched in the same country (Canada) 12 years ago, reaching the final in Germany four years ago before losing to hosts Germany.

The Falconets made it to the semi finals of the 2012 finals in Japan.

In Canada, Dedevbo who led the U-17 girls to the FIFA U-17 World Cup finals in Trinidad and Tobago in 2010 and Azerbaijan in 2012, will pump up the Falconets’ spirit for the Group C campaign against Mexico and Korea Republic in Moncton (August 6 and 9 respectively) and; against England in Toronto on August 13.