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New Zealand coach, Alana Gunn considered their goal during Wednesday night’s 4-1 defeat to Nigeria in the FIFA Women’s World Cup Group A tie at Cibao Stadium, Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic, as an awesome achievement from the team.
Nigeria had three on the scoreboard before the half-hour mark thanks to a Shakirat Moshood finish, a long-distance effort from Khadijat Adegoke that slipped through the hands of Brooke Neary, and a right-footed rocket from Faridat Abdulwahab.
Nigeria No10 Taiwo Afolabi, who emerged the Woman of the Match, bossed the midfield all day and got a goal for herself early in the second stanza by rising high to spin home a header, before Hannah Saxon tallied a consolation to give the Young Football Ferns a positive to end the day.
“A goal is massive for us. It’s an awesome achievement from the team, and especially for Hannah, she’ll remember that type of moment forever,” Gunn said in a post-match press conference cited by FIFA.com.
Nigeria coach, Bankole Olowookere, said scoring four goals and conceding one in their first match was not a bad result, adding that they would take the matches as they came.
“It’s a good first game for us. We are taking them as they come, so a good game for us, scoring four goals and only conceding one, so not bad for our first game,” noted the team’s longstanding handler.
The Flamingos will look to secure a positive result needed to secure a spot in the knockout stages of the competition when they take on Ecuador for the second game at the same venue on Saturday. Three days later, the talented Africans will take on Dominican Republic for their last game.
Nigeria have participated in every edition of the competition since its inception in 2008, reaching the quarterfinals in 2010, 2012, and 2014. They broke the last eight jinx in the 2022 edition by defeating the USA in the quarterfinals to reach their first-ever semi-finals.
