Nigeria’s Super Falcons on Thursday night beat their counterparts from Cameroon 1 – 0 to qualify for the semi-finals as well as earned a slot in next year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup.
The Super Falcons of Nigeria have defeated Cameroon 1-0 in their Women’s Africa Cup of Nations quarter-final clash on Thursday night in Casablanca.
Nigeria’s attacker Rasheedat Ajibade scored in the 56th minute to increase her tally to three in the competition.
With the victory, Nigeria qualified for the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand next year. All four teams that make the semi-finals at the ongoing continental championship in Morocco would pick automatic tickets for the Women’s World Cup, with the team adjudged to have finished fifth presented with another chance for a shot at a Playoff Tournament next year.
Nigeria became the 15th team to qualify for the 9th FIFA Women’s World Cup finals, to be staged in Australia and New Zealand from 20th July – 20th August next year.
Hosts Australia (with five venues) and New Zealand (four venues), as well as China, Korea Republic, Philippines, Vietnam, Japan, France, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, United States of America, Morocco and Zambia are the other teams.
The 5th and 6th –placed teams at the ongoing tournament in Morocco will have another shot at qualifying for the World Cup, as they join eight other teams for a Playoff Tournament early next year.
Nigeria is one of only six teams, among them the USA, Germany, Brazil and Japan, to have played in every edition of the FIFA Women’s World Cup finals since the championship was launched in China in 1991.
A 1-2 defeat at the hands of South Africa’s Banyana Banyana in their opening match of Group C last week Monday somewhat dimmed the shine of the Super Falcons, but they rose stoutly to the occasion and won their other two matches with six points and six goals advantage shooting them to the last eight.