By

Eniola Olatunji

Nigeria’s Flamingos on Saturday at the Remo Stadium, Shagamu Ogun State emphatically showed superiority over the Bantwana of South Africa in the AFCON U17 women qualification football in a two nil victory making it 5-1 on goals aggregate.

Goal machine, Chidi Harmony who scored a brace in the first leg opened scoring from a diagonal pass from the right flank perfectly headed in at the 13th minute before Aishat Animashaun’s inter ballistic missile got Nigeria the 2nd goal in the 57th minute.

The South Africans fought gallantly after conceding the first goal equalizing 120 seconds after but was ruled offside. The second half was miserable as the team tried several options including changing three players among who was the goal keeper but the Flamingos packed the bus, a football terminology for good defensive work.

 Grinning like a school boy, Coach Bayo Olowookere said his girls played according to instruction and would  now go back to plan for the last qualifier.

Nigeria will play the winner between Botswana and Algeria in the last hurdle next month.
 
Nigeria has been a dominant force in African football in all categories and the U17 women football is not an exceptional one.

The Bantwana of South Africa has met the Flamingoes of Nigeria a few times in head to head football. The last time they met at the first leg of this championship on 25thFebruary at Lucas Moripe Stadium, South Africa was stunned in a 1-3 loss.

On 25th February 2015 South Africa won by a lone goal; on 20th March 2016 also in a friendly match, Nigeria won by a lone goal but on 6th May 2023 in an AFCON duel, Nigeria won 3-2.

The most remarkable of their meeting was the 2010 world cup qualifier where Nigeria beat South Africa at home 5-3 on 26th February 2010 and in the 2nd leg on 27th March spanked them 7-0 making 12-3 on goals aggregate.

The Bankole Olowookere tutored Nigerian girls had been in the AFCON finals 6 times doing well in 2008; 2010; 2012; 2013 and 2016.  

The team was at the FIFA world cup 7 times and her highest performance there was a Bronze medal at India 2022 when she beat the German Machine 3-2 on penalties after 3-3 at full time. Nigeria lost the semifinal to Columbia 5-6 0n Penalties after a goalless full time.

The Coach Nfombifuthi Khumalo led South Africans, were good twice, in their 6 times AFCON appearances and that was 2010 and 2018. Those were the years the South Africans made their world cup appearances which they lost each year at group stages.

South Africa however has an enviable record of having the most goals in an International match. They scored 28-0 against Seychelles in the opening match of group B in the 2019 COSAFA U17 championship.

The 2025 FIFA World Cup U17 girls will be hosted in Africa by Morocco for the first time with 24 teams from 17th October to 8th November.