THE Flamingos of Nigeria will host Liberia tomorrow in Abuja with a ticket to the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in sight.
Having won the first leg of their final qualifying round tie 4-1 against Liberia in Monrovia, the Nigerian girls are hot favourites to finish off their West African opponents tomorrow at the MKO Abiola National Stadium.
Goals by Harmony Chidi, Peace Effiong, Shakirat Moshood and substitute Blessing Ifitezue earned the Flamingos the comfortable first leg win in Monrovia on Sunday, and only 90 minutes separate the 2022 bronze medallists from another appearance at the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup, this time in the Dominican Republic.
Chidi has been the standout player of this qualifying campaign globally, scoring 11 goals in five matches, and with the possibility of adding to it at the MKO Abiola National Stadium tomorrow.
The Flamingos have guaranteed goals every time they have played in this qualifying series, sweeping aside Central African Republic 12-0 on aggregate (6-0 in each leg) in the second round, thrashing Burkina Faso 7-1 on aggregate (1-1 and 6-0) in the third round, and the 4-1 routing of their hosts in Monrovia in the final round, first leg encounter.
Nigeria have missed only one edition of the FIFA U17 Women’s World Cup till date – the 2018 edition in Uruguay for which Cameroon’s Baby Lionesses edged the Flamingos on the away-goal rule in the final round.
Tomorrow’s clash, which is scheduled to kick off at 4pm, will have Egyptian Shahenda El-Maghrabi as referee, with her compatriots May Ali Hassan, Gamalat Ahmed Shebl and Noura Samir El-Sayed as assistant referee 1, assistant referee 2 and fourth official respectively.
Christine Ziga from Ghana will be the match commissioner while Ethiopia’s Tesfanesh Woreta Hailu will serve as referee assessor.
This year’s FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup will be held in the cities of Santiago de los Caballeros and Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic from October 16 to November 3.
