Nigeria U-20 female national football team, Falconets, have earned a place at this year’s FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup finals after a goal by Opeyemi Ajakaye eventually brought down hard-fighting Burundi in a final round, second leg encounter at the MKO Abiola National Stadium on Saturday evening.
The victory earned the Coach Christopher Danjuma girls a 2-0 aggregate victory for Nigeria in the final round of the qualifying race in Africa. The Falconets had won the first leg 1-0 in Dar es Salaam six days ago.
The deadlock was however broken in the 78th minute by Ajakaye, who was assisted by Akekoromowei. Ajakaye scored again in the 90th minute but the goal did not stand. The result put the Falconets through to the final tournament in Colombia later this year.
Nigeria has been ever present at the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup, since it was launched as an U-19 tournament in Canada 22 years ago, finishing as runners-up in 2010 and 2014 and reaching the semi-finals in Japan in 2012.