By

Eniola Olatunji 

Nigeria’s Flamingos on Monday in Accra Ghana zoomed into the WAFU Zone B U17 Girls semifinal with a 3-2 victory over the Cote D’Ivoire Girls in a group B decider.

Rampaging Chidi Harmony hammered the Ivoirians with a hat-trick (three goals in a match) to hand over the sweet victory to Nigeria.  

Esther Kwama scored CIV’s first goal in the 56th minute only for Rokibat Azeez to commit a foul within the vital area the resultant penalty which Guasam gleefully slotted in to record 3-2.

Thus Nigeria topped group B with 6 points scoring 12 goals and conceding 2; CIV came 2nd with 3 points scoring 7 goals and conceding 3 while Niger Republic came 3rd with no point, scored no goal and conceded 14 goals.  

Incidentally the Flamingos and their Ivorian counterparts met seven times before with the Ivoirians clinching four victories against Nigeria’s two and one drawn game. There were 20 goals scored between them with Nigeria supplying the highest – 11 goals and Ivory Coast 9 goals. The biggest win for Nigeria was 5-1 and the biggest win for Ivory Coast was 3-2.

Check the match records. On 17th April 2013 CIV won by a lone goal; on 27th April 2013 it was 1-1 draw; Nigeria’s biggest win was on 6th September 2018 which was 5-1; On 21st June 2020 Nigeria won 3-1; CIV won by a lone goal on 6th January 2021 and defeated Nigeria again 3-2 on 18th January 2021while in their last meeting of 21st June. There was a lone goal victory for CIV in their CAF U17 qualifier match played on 25th April 2024. All their meetings were CAF matches this is the first time the two teams are meeting under WAFU Games. 

Nigeria went on goals riot whipping Niger Republic 9-0 in the first group match in Ghana and CIV canned same Niger Republic 5-0 in the 2nd group match.

In group A, Ghana had beaten Benin Republic twice 4-1 in the first match and 3-2 on Saturday to stay on top of the Group that has two teams as the 3rd team withdrew. 

Nigeria will play the Benin Republic girls in the first semifinal while hosts Ghana will crack a hard nut in the Ivorian girls on Thursday.

It is the first time that West Africa will gather her girls together to play the Maiden U17 tourney.