By

Eniola Olatunji 

Nigeria’s Flamingos on Saturday night at Cibao bashed Ecuador 4-0 in a Group A second round group match stamping her authority in the group.

Shakirat Moshood got a brace in the match opening the score sheet via a penalty in the 28th minute after Captain Taiwo Afolabi was hacked down in the box and the second goal from her came in added time of 90+6 minutes when Chidi Harmony laced her pass. 

Ref of the match was Frida Klarlund from Denmark. 

Striker Chidi Harmony herself opened her tournament’s goal record in the 54th minute when Animasaun got her a pass to make the score board then read Nigeria 2 Ecuador 0. It was Peace Effiong who scored the 3rd goal for Nigeria. 

Nigeria thus secured her quarterfinal ticket leading group A with 6 points scoring 8 goals and conceding 1; Ecuador despite the defeat is still 2nd with 3 points scoring 2 goals and conceding 4; hosts Dominican Republic with no point and awaiting her 2nd match is 3rd and New Zealand is 4th pending their duel at midnight some minutes away. 

Nigeria and Ecuador met on 29th October 2019 at the world cup and Nigeria won 3-2 but when they met in an international friendly on 3rd June 2022 where Ecuador won by a lone goal.

Ecuador played tough qualifier games being beating by Brazil by a lone goal; she piped Peru by a lone goal; played goalless with Paraguay and earned another goalless draw with Uruguay.

Nigeria had played 1-1 with South Africa; lost to Benin Republic 1-2; beat Benin Republic at home 3-0; played goalless with Rwanda and defeated Libya by a lone goal. 

La Tri of Ecuador has never had a podium finish in her 6 appearances at the tournament but made the quarterfinal when she hosted in 1995 and at Chile 2010.

Look at the results of the Nigerian matches at the 2022 games. Nigeria won Bronze in India when she beat same Germany 3-2 on penalties after 3-3 at full time at Patil stadium Navi Munbai. Nigeria lost the semifinal to Columbia 5-6 on penalties after a goalless full time at Margao. At the quarterfinal, Nigeria played 1-1 with the USA at full time and moved on via 4-3 penalty shootouts. She lost to Germany 1-2; bashed New Zealand 4-0 and dismissed Chile 2-1 at the Group B stages.

Apart from the Bronze medal, Nigeria was quarterfinalists in 2010, 2012 and 2014.

Dominic Republic will play New Zealand on Saturday at midnight next and a loss will make their 3rd game against Nigeria a mere formality.  That is the same time Columbia will tackle USA in group B. Same midnight, Japan will face Brazil in group D.  

Spain lashed South Korea 5-0 in a group B match though Cerrato Izquierdo who came in for Santiago  Garrido in the 62nd minute saw red in the 89th minute. 

Paula Comendador got a brace in the 7th and 32nd minutes for Spain Santiago Garrido scored the 3rd goal for Spain in the 45+4 minute and Moreno Torres tucked in the 4th goal via penalty in the 47th minute before Luna Gomez was assisted by Agirrezebala Azkue in the 90+3 minute to make it 5-0.

Algeria’s Ref Ghada Mehat was in charge of the Spain versus South Korea’s match.

Spain too has surely qualified from group B having secured 6 points scoring 8 goals and conceding 1; Columbia has a point with no goals difference to place 2nd while South Korea has 1 point scoring 6 goals and conceding 5 only for USA to temporarily rock the bottom with no point scoring 1 goal and conceding 3. 

Tomorrow Sunday at 2100 hours, North Korea will play Kenya in group C and Zambia will face Poland in group D.