THE Super Falcons of Nigeria have been eliminated from the women’s football event of the Paris 2024 Olympics following their 3-1 defeat to Japan in Nantes today.
The nine-time African champions have now lost all their three Group C matches after 1-0 defeats to Brazil and Spain in their first two fixtures.
Maila Hamano, Mina Tanaka and Hikaru Kitagawa netted for the 2011 World Cup winners, with Jennifer Echegini scoring Nigeria’s only goal.
All the goals were scored in the first half, Hamano finishing off a team move in the 22nd minute and Tanaka reacting first to a rebound to poke the ball past Chiamaka Nnadozie 10 minutes later.
The Super Falcons, who needed to win by a two-goal margin to stand any chance of advancing to the quarter-finals, got some hope briefly as Echegini fired home a superb goal in the 42nd minute.
However, all hopes were extinguished before half-time when Kitagawa struck a brilliant free-kick into the top corner in added time to give the Super Falcons a mountain to climb.
With the result, the Super Falcons, who are the lowesr-ranked team in the group by FIFA, finished bottom of the standings, with Japan coming second and earning a quarter-final spot.
World champions Spain, who defeated Brazil 2-0 today to complete a 100 percent record in the group, finished on top and are also heading to the quarter-finals.
Brazil are third and await results from other groups to see if they will advance.
