Nigeria’s female national team on Monday failed to make the best of home advantage at Agege Stadium, Lagos, as the team captained by Barcelona Femeni of Spain attacker, Asisat Oshoala could only battle to a 1-1 draw with visiting Cote d’Ivoire, and the result sent the nine-time African champions crashing out of the qualifiers for next year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, megasportsarena.com reports.
The Falcons missed the last two editions of the Olympics women football events at London 2012 and Rio 2016, but all hope of making it to the next edition in The Land of The Rising Sun were dented Monday at The Temple of Soccer in The Centre of Excellence when the visitors got the game’s first goal, which gave them the lead after the first leg ended goalless last week in Abidjan.
The Falcons last featured at Beijing 2008, but their hopes of making it to Tokyo 2020 got a jolt when Cote d’Ivoire shot into the lead and, despite Oshoala overcome a patchy start to prove her worth as Nigeria’s captain of the evening by equalizing in the 34th minute, the three-time African Women Footballer of The Year could not orchestrate a much-needed winner.
Oshoala’s equalizer came after the visitors, who held out for a goalless draw in the first leg last week, went ahead in the 12th minute, courtesy Kapho Nina’s free-kick that left Falcons’ goalkeeper, Chiamaka Nnadozie groping unsuccessfully to keep the ball out.
After failing to click and struggling for the first quarter of the game, Oshoala found her rhythm and fired home the equaliser just two minutes after Ange N’Guessan almost made it two for the visitors, with a snap-shot from the edge, but Nnadozie was well positioned to make save.
Dramatically, CIV almost scored in the 54th minute, but Nnadozie rose high to deny Clementine Toure’s side from gaining the lead inside the area and, three minutes later at the other end, Francisca Ordega’s effort ricocheted off the crossbar and the rebound chance was ruled offside.
In the 64th minute, Nnadozie again had to be at her best to stop the desperate visitors from making hay in the Falcons’ box, after which Falcons’ interim coach, Christopher Danjuma made his first change in the 66th minute, as Rasheedat Ajibade was replaced by Chinaza Uchendu.
Danjuma’s second substitution came in the 90th minute, as Folashade Ijamilusi replaced Ngozi Okobi and, with six minutes to go on the clock, Regina Otu’s an attempt was easily caught by the Ivorian goalkeeper, following which the game extended into three minutes added time.
Monday’s match in Lagos came after the first leg on Thursday, when both sides played out a barren draw at Parc des Sports de Treichville, such that the 1-1 finish to proceedings sent Nigeria out and Cote d’Ivoire into the final round of the qualifiers, where they are bound to play against Cameroon, who look good to scale over DR Congo.
On the other hand, the Olympics’ jinx continues for the Falcons, who are nine-time champions of Africa, but will again miss out on Tokyo, left only with memories of how they fell in the group stages of both Sydney 2000 and Beijing 2008 women football events, despite having earlier reached the quarter-finals at Athens 2004.
Danjuma had been hoping to take them to Japan to surpass their round of 16 end to a dramatic FIFA Women’s World Cup campaign earlier this year’s in France, but they will not have the opportunity of getting back to the global scale once again until the Women’s Mundial in 2023.
Indeed, the Falcons’ best performance at the World Cup was in reaching the quarter-finals at USA 1999, but only made it to the second round for the first time since, despite being the only African team to have played in all of FIFA’s eight editions of the Mundial since 1991 in China.
