Nigeria progressed to the semi-final of the Africa Women Cup of Nations after cruising to a 6-0 win over Equatorial Guinea at the Cape Coast Stadium in their final group encounter on Saturday.
Francisca Ordega's opener and Asisat Oshoala's hat-trick handed the Super Falcons a comprehensive first-half advantage as Desire Oparanozie and Rita Chikwelu added the rest after the interval to help the holders coast past their central African foes.
With Zambia forcing South Africa to a 1-1 in the other group B encounter, the holders confirmed their passage to the last four, having ended their group stage campaign in the second position.
Despite the draw, Banyana Banyana, claimed the Group B summit with seven points, while Zambia finished third with four.
Going into the encounter, Thomas Dennerby's side were in dire need of a win to reach the last four, regardless of the outcome of the game between Zambia and South Africa in Accra.
Ordega, who bagged the Player of the Match award against the Shepolopolo, opened the scoring for Nigeria in the 10th minute and Oshoala ended her Awcon drought, scoring her first goal in five straight match three minutes later.
The Dalian Quanjian forward extended their Super Falcons lead to 3-0 and grabbed her brace of the match in the 23rd minute before netting her hat-trick in the 10 minutes later to put her side 4-0 up at half time.
Three minutes after the restart, the ruthless Nigerians continued from where they left it in the opening half with Oparanozie adding a fifth of the match through a brilliant pass from Ordega.
Nzalang fought to keep the Nigerians at bay but that did not last for too long, captain Chikwelu managed to force her way through to score the sixth to wrap up their second big win on the bounce.
With the victory, Nigeria have set up a semi-final date with last year's finalist Cameroon at the Accra Sports Stadium on Tuesday, November 27, 2018.
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