The Super Falcons of Nigeria put up what was unarguably their best performance at the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand when they took on England in the round of 16 match played on Monday at the Brisbane stadium. However, it was not to be their day as the Three Lionesses scraped into the quarter-finals with a 4-2 triumph.
In a game the European champions were expected to comfortably win, the African ladies showed that they were a match to whatever was thrown at them and battled the English ladies to a stand still, dominating play in large portions of the match.
England started the match strongly and rattled Nigeria in the opening minutes, finding plenty of space out wide but soon enough, the Falcons took control and showed that they could hold their own by dictating play in the middle of the park.
Nigeria looked the most dangerous and gave the European champions a real fright on a number of occasions with England-born Ashleigh Plumptre coming close to finding the back of the net when her thunderbolt of a shot rattled the wood work in the 16th minute.
She followed that up with a strike which England goalkeeper, Mary Earps, managed to scramble away.
In the first half, Nigeria had eight shots on goal, three more than England, whose best chance fell to Alessia Russo in the 23rd minute.
The second half followed the same pattern as the first, England dominating possession but Nigeria looking the more dangerous.
England had a golden chance to seal the match with 15 minutes left only for Chiamaka Nnadozie to pull off a fine save from Rachel Daly’s powerful header.
The game inevitably went to extra time and again Nigeria looked the most likely to score with Michele Alozie and Oshoala both going close, but neither team could break the deadlock.
Despite Nigeria having the better of the chances throughout and the European champions reduced to 10 players after 87 minutes, the match was decided by the luck of penalties.
England got off to a terrible start in the penalty shootout when Georgia Stanway fired wide, but Desire Oparanozie couldn’t take advantage and missed with an almost identical effort.
Beth of England made no mistake, but Nigeria’s Michelle Alozie shot way over top to give England an advantage they never surrendered, sealing the win when Chloe Kelly calmly converted.