France shoot down Flamingoes

Posted by admin Headlines, Soccer, Sports Thursday, October 4th, 2012

Nigeria again failed to advance beyond the quarter-final of the U-17 Women’s World Cup after falling to France 5-4 on penalties at the competition in Azerbaijan on Thursday.

At the last edition held in Trinidad and Tobago in 2010, Nigeria were stopped by Korea Republic in the quarter-finals. The team have never made it to the semi-finals before.

Nigeria’s game in Baku was the only so far, in this year’s edition to end in a penalty shootout.

Coach Peter Dedevbo believes the French ladies mastered their strategies and outplayed them when it mattered.

“France read us very well. We had our strategies, but they did not pay off. Sometimes football is like that. I am not happy, I have taken my team twice to the World Cup and we lost twice in the quarter-finals. I am not happy at all.” Dedevbo said.

The game ended goalless in regulation time but the French made no pretence of what was to come when the game started as they controlled the game from the beginning.

Ghoutia Karchouni almost punished the Flamingos early on when they fell asleep during a short corner, but goalkeeper Gift Andy saved her curling shot. Aminat Yakubu then reminded France that they must stay on their toes, bursting down the right to cross, but it was well cut out.

The night took a turn against Nigeria when captain Victoria Adielomon received only the second red card of the tournament for her second yellow of the night. Her stand-in Halimatu Ayinde almost snatched the game on 84 minutes though, but she slid her shot into the side-netting when baring down on Bruneau’s goal.

With time up, Sandie Toletti, Ugochi Emenayo and Lea Declercq exchanged efforts before Sarah Nnodim put horribly wide. It fell to Marion Romanelli to tuck home the winner and send Nigeria packing in the tournament.

-Punchwp_posts