Last-gasp Ajibade strike seals quarterfinal spot for Falconets
S@jide_olusola triker Rasheedat Ajibade scored deep into added time as the Falconets drew with China to escape early exit from the 2018 U-20 FIFA Women’s World Cup in France and book a spot in the quarter-final of the soccer fiesta.
Players and team officials celebrated the draw, as the Falconets needed a draw or win to advance to the last eight of the tournament.
The Falconets trailed the Asians after Linyan Zhang’s 41st minute goal puts the Nigerian team on the brink of early exit from the tournament.
The Christopher Danjuma tutored team came out smoking at the start of the second half at the Stade de Clos Gastel, which saw Anam Imo’s header saved by goalie Huan.
Their urgency for an equaliser resulted in a yellow card for Opeyemi Sunday for a poor challenge on scorer Linyan Zhang.
With the pressure on the Chinese team who had 53% possession, the Falconets were left exposed at the back and in the 84th minute, and they nearly paid for it, but for Chiamaka Nnadozie who rose high to deny Yanwen Wang from scoring.
However, the perseverance paid off in the 94th minute when Ajibade with the last kick of the ball scored to level matters for the Falconets, and a place in the quarter-finals where they will battle Spain for a place in the semi-final.
Ajibade later took to her twitter handle to celebrate the goal.
“In God we trust. The team believed and played till the final whistle and we got the goal, which I dedicate to my mentor Mr Emmanuel Osahon Orobosa, to go through. Thank you for all the great support and prayer, she said.”
After the match monitored by Daily Trust, Danjuma stated that it was a hard game they had to scale through and vowed to keep going till the end.
With this victory, the team stayed second position with 4 points, and a place to the quarter-final behind Germany.