By

Eniola Olatunji 

History repeated itself in the early hours of Monday when the Falconets of Nigeria scored a late goal in the 86th minute to snatch full match points from South Korea in the same manner it was done in the last competition in Costa Rica 2022 when the only goal in that match was scored in the 83rd minute.

Substitute Chukwuamaka Osigwe found Flourish Sebastine who plies her trade at Stade de Reims FC in the box who slotted it to the far right corner of the net and the stadium speakers at Estadio Metropolitano da Techo blared the famous song “Gwo Gwo Gwo Ngwo”.

Cover photo: Flourish Chukwuamaka of Nigeria.

The two teams fought like Trojans to carry the day for which Nigeria had a slight edge including 16-11 foul calls; 14-8 shots at goal only 2 on target for Nigeria and none for Korea which had 5-3 corner kicks. This victory makes Nigeria four times victorious over South Korea.
 
That makes Nigeria to be 2nd on Group D table 3 points with Germany that slaughtered Venezuela 5-2 earlier in the first group matches.

The Tegeut Ladies of South Korea has 7 appearances in the tournament and only won the Bronze at the 2010 tournament in Germany when she beat Columbia by a lone goal.

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 had beaten South Korea 2-0 on 19th August 2012; beaten the South Koreans on 9th August 2014 and piped their opponents by a lone goal on 14th August 2022.

South Korea in 2024 beat the Chinese Taipei 6-0 on 6th March; mauled Uzbekistan 13-0 in an Asian Cup encounter of 9th March; lost to Democratic Republic of Korea 0-3 and lost to Australia by a lone goal on 16th March . 

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.

Paraguay defeated Morocco 2-0 in group C with the two goals from Sao Paulo Forward, Maria Leiva in the 37th minute and from a penalty kick in the 56th minute. Defender, Fatima Ghazouani was issued yellow from a rough play and VAR approved the consequent penalty kick.

Earlier Spain had beaten USA in Group C by a lone goal scored by Real Madrid Forward, Olaya Rodriguez in the 8th minute. 

On Monday at 2300 hours North Korea will look eyeball to eyeball with Argentina in group F while at the same time Ghana will face Australia in group E.

Tuesday will feature Japan versus New Zealand at 0200 hours the time Costa Rica will also square it up against the Orange Girls of Netherlands. Mexico will meet Australia that Tuesday at 2300 hours.

Cameroon that played 2-2 with Mexico in their first game will play 0200 hours of Wednesday against hosts Columbia; remember whipped babies of Fiji Island will try to play Bob Marley’s Redemption Song against Canada at 0200 hours in Group B on Wednesday.

Later that Wednesday the Falconets of Nigeria will play their second crucial game against German Machine at 2300 hours in Group D while Spain will engage Paraguay at the same time in Group C.
Eniola Olatunji reporting for Patmos Media Line.