The Nigeria U20 Women team mauled the Central African Republic 4-0 in Wednesday’s 2022 Fifa U20 Women’s World Cup qualifier.
Mercy Idoko’s double and goals from Flourish Sebastine and Blessing Okpe inspired the Falconets to breeze past the visitors inside Lagos’ Mobolaji Johnson Arena.
Christopher Danjuma’s girls had made light work of the Central African team in the first leg – dismissing them 7-0 inside Stade Japoma de Douala.
Nigeria began the game on a bright note but were unable to convert the begging chances that came their way.
For the visiting team, they were contented on sitting back to halt the attacking forays of the adventurous West Africans.
However, it was Nigeria who took a 13th-minute lead through Sebastine who fired past goalkeeper Beverly Mellot after collecting a pass from the midfield.
She could have completed a double almost a minute later, but goalkeeper Mellot was well-positioned to make a smart save.
Ten minutes before the half-time break, player-of-the-match Idoko put Danjuma’s team ahead after a well-taken corner kick by Sebastine.
In the 51st minute, she found the net for the second time while substitute Blessing Okpe completed the rout with a thunderous effort that was unstoppable by Mellot.
Earlier on, the Central African Republic were reduced to 10 players as captain Sumita Lindsay Gouandjia was shown the way out for a second bookable offence.
With this result, the Falconets have qualified for the third round of qualifiers. There, they will face either Egypt or Congo for a chance to qualify for Costa Rica 2022.
Since the inception of the competition, Nigeria have appeared in all editions of the Fifa U20 Women’s World Cup – with their best performance being a second-place finish at the 2010 and 2014 editions staged in Germany and Canada respectively.
In 2012, they returned home as the fourth-best team having bowed 2-1 to hosts Japan with Yoko Tanaka and Asuka Nishikawa scoring the goals for the Asians at the National Olympic Stadium in Tokyo.
Initially, the tenth edition billed for Costa Rica in 2021, was cancelled due to the outbreak of Covid-19.
