By

Eniola Olatunji 

The Falconets of Nigeria for the fourth time ever facing Germany succumbed to superior football skills losing 1-3 at Bogota in Colombia as the Group D matches entered the second round.

Germany pressed very hard in the first half and when Zicai who spray passes like a water sprinkler lobbed a pass into the Nigerian 6 yard box, Alara Sehitler of FC Bayern jumped highest to nod it in for Germany’s first goal in the 17th minute.

A ward from Oshoala Academy in Lagos, Nigeria Chiamaka Okwuchukwu laced a shot for Nigeria’s equalizer in the 50th minute. Chiamaka was substituted in the last moments as she accumulated poor shots at goal.

Germany later pumped in two more goals to win the match, first it was Zicar again who gave Sofie Zdebel of Leverkusen the ball to score in the 61st minute before substitute Sarah Ernst took advantage of a defensive blunder to blast in the winning goal in the 90+2nd minute and the Nigerians wore long looks having realized the match was now irredeemable. 

Nigeria’s game picked up in the 2nd half as she had 9-16 shots at goal from 4-11 in the first half. Germany outclassed Nigeria in every department of the game forcing Nigeria to commit 7 corner kicks in the first half to 1 for her which changed to 8-3 in the 2nd half ; Nigeria did not string good passes as Germany made 525 – 312 passes in the game, though both sides were physical, foul calls were 8-7 for Germany.
 
Coach Danjuma Musa did not wait for a return to the locker room when he scolded his players’ right there on the pitch. 

Germany had in the first match beaten Venezuela 5-2 and Nigeria piped South Korea by a lone goal. South Korea will on Saturday 7th at 2100 hours face Germany while Nigeria at the same time will test might against Venezuela. 

Germany temporarily tops group D with 6 points and +5 goals difference; Nigeria is second with 3 points and -1 goals difference; South Korea, yet to play a second game is 3rd with zero point and -1 goals difference while Venezuela is at the bottom with zero point and -3 goals difference.

Germany missed one out of eleven tournaments, won the title thrice at Thailand 2004 when she beat China 2-0; in 2010 when she beat Nigeria 2-0 in the final and repeated a defeat dose to Nigeria at the 2014 finals in Canada by a lone goal after extra Time, In 2012 at Japan, Germany lost in the final to USA by a lone goal but at the maiden edition Canada 2002 she beat Brazil to win the Bronze on penalties 4-3 after full time ended 1-1.

Colombia once beat Germany 1-0 on 10th August 2022; Germany dazed New Zealand 3-0 on 13th August 2022 and on 17th August 2022 lost to Mexico 0-1.

The three times Nigeria and Germany met, Germany won including on 6th August 2018 when Germany beat Nigeria 1-0 as well as the two world cup finals stated above.
 
The Falconets of Nigeria has been in all the eleven tournaments losing in the finals to hosts Germany in 2010 by 2-0; lost the finals again to Germany in 2014 by a lone goal after extra time; lost the Bronze to Japan by 2-1 when Japan hosted in 2012. Nigeria lost to Germany on the two occasions she was Runners-up. Nigeria was stopped 5 times at the quarterfinal stages whereas no other African Country reached the quarterfinal. Nigeria’s Falconets won Gold at the 2019 All African Games Football.

Nigeria on 12th August 2022 lost to France 0-1; defeated South Korea by a lone goal on 14th August 2022; defeated Canada 3-1 on 18th August 2022 and lost to Netherlands 0-2 on 21st August 2022.

In a group C encounter, Spain spanked Paraguay 2-0 with Athletic Club of Spain striker, Jone Amezega scoring a brace first with a Bartel pass in the 20th minute and then a Corrale connect in the 37th minute. 

Spain tops group C with 6 points and +3 goals difference; Paraguay is 2nd with 3 points and zero goals difference; USA is 3rd with zero points and -1 goals difference while Morocco is 4th with zero point and -2 goals difference.

Group C final group matches will see USA meeting Paraguay at 0000 hours of Sunday 8th September while at the same time Morocco will play Spain.

Tomorrow Thursday 5th September, South Korea will play against Venezuela in the 2nd Group D match at 0200 hours while Africa’s Morocco will test skills against USA in group C also at 0200 hours.

Also tomorrow at 2300 hours, Japan will have a test of African physical football against Ghana in group E while North Korea and Costa Rica will slug it out also at in group F at 2300 hours. 

Group second round matches end on Friday 6th September when Austria and New Zealand will line up against each other at 0200 hours in group E while at the same time the Orange Girls of Netherlands will face the Argentine babes in group F.