Eniola Olatunji reporting 

France in the wee early hours of Thursday Nigerian time dropped unlucky and resilient Japan in the Round of 16 games via a penalty kick of injury time of the extra time in a match that was perhaps the first along with the Norway versus Paraguay to go into extra time in the world U20 Male football tournament in Chile.

Lucas Michal stepped forward to score the historic penalty shot at 120+3 in the gritty match that saw Japan bringing out their goalkeeper Alexandre Pisano for Rui Praki with a view to pushing the match into the game of death (penalty shootouts). It was the 4th goal for Michal now pursuing the Golden Boot award for top scorer as he had scored a brace against New Caledonia and got a goal against South Africa at the group stages. 

The 12,405 fans at the stands watched painfully as Ref Katia Garcia of Mexico pointed to the spot. Japan hit the woodwork twice and had her shots blocked 7 -2 times with their goalkeeper making 4-6 saves. There were 23-17 shots at goal of which Japan had 6-5 shots on target.

France dominated the game with 63-37% ball control stringing a good 634-369 passes for Japan to lose energy runny around the pitch but France played hard football like Africa committing 17-13 foul calls that earned them 3-1 yellow cards and they wasted the 8-5 corner kick advantage. 

The Norway versus Paraguay round of 16 game was more dramatic under Ref Keylor Herrera of Costa Rica before 9,368 fans at Talca  as VAR was the ruler of the game won by a lone goal by Norway.

Tiago Isaias  missed a penalty kick for Paraguay in the 11th minute; a 49th minute goal for Paraguay was disallowed by VAR; another 90+4th minute goal for Paraguay was again disallowed by VAR; 100th minute penalty for Norway was disallowed by VAR which also disallowed a 120+1 minute penalty for Paraguay and another 120+5th minute penalty for Paraguay though the Ref gave a yellow to Balbuena Otazu at that time for protesting.

The tactical strategy of France to  obtain victory from the bench paid out as substitute Niklas Fuglestad who came in for Nyheim in the 46th minute scored a beautiful goal in the 116th minute from a telepathic pass from Nicklas who came in for Markus Haaland in the 89th minute. We could not easily verify his relationship with the Haaland goal merchant of Manchester City and Norway.

Yesterday night, Nigeria’s Flying Eagles was blasted 4-0 by Argentina and South Africa drowned 3-1 by Colombia in the round of 16 games. Today, Thursday USA will face Italy at 8:30pm Nigerian time in a test of might while the last of the round of 16 games will take place at midnight between Africa’s hope, Morocco and South Korea of Asia.   

Well then, France will meet Norway in the quarterfinal on Sunday at Midnight Nigerian time. Mexico will meet Argentina in the quarterfinals at 9pm on Saturday in Chile’s most populated city of Santiago. Columbia will face the dreaded Spanish boys on Saturday at 9pm in the 1st quarterfinal.

The 3rd quarterfinals to be played at 9pm of 12th October at Rancagua will be winner of the USA vs Italy match and winner of the Morocco vs South Korea match while the 4th quarterfinal will feature winner of the Paraguay vs Norway and winner of the Japan vs France at Valparaiso at midnight.