World champions Spain narrowly edged Nigeria’s Super Falcons 1-0 in their second group game at the Paris 2024 Olympics Women’s Football event at
the Stade de la Beaujoire in Nantes on Sunday night, www.aclsports.com reports.
Both teams went into Sunday’s game at the back of contrasting results in their opening group games on Thursday; Nigeria losing to Brazil while Spain edged Japan 2-1.
The African giants thus knew that a defeat would severely dampen their chances of advancing to the next round of the Olympics for only the second time ever so Randy Waldrum’s girls played a deep line defensive structure with sporradic counterattack for the entire duration of the game.
While the Spaniards swarmed over the Nigerian defence like maturing bees in the first half, the team somehow managed to keep their opponents at arm’s length for most parts of the half until Chiamaka Nnadozie produced a magnificent save late in the half to deny the Spaniards.
Before then though, Nigeria had threatened twice on the break but Esther Okoronkwo – denied by the goalkeeper – and team captain Rasheedat Ajibade could not make the attempts count.
Early in the second half, Salma Paralluelo had the ball in the net as she bundled past Nnadozie from a free kick, but the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) chalked it off for offside.
With nine minutes to go, Osinachi Ohale cleared from the line as Alexia Putellas, who had been thwarted severally by Nnadozie, struck from just outside the box.
The game’s only goal would however come in the 85th minute, when the ubiquitous Putellas weaved the ball past Nnadozie straight from a free-kick on the left side of the Nigeria defence.
There was still a final chance for Nigeria though but substitute Chinwendu Ihezuo fluffed her lines and was denied by Spain goalkeeper Catalina Coll from point blank range after she was put through by Toni Payne in stoppage time.
Defeat means the Falcons remain pointless in the tournament, and must achieve a win against Japan at the same venue on Wednesday to stand any chance of progressing to the quarter-finals
