Nigeria’s Falconets beat France 1-0 on Friday morning to get their FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup campaign in Costa Rica off to a flying start.
An 85th-minute strike from Flourish Sebastine, the Falconets’ top scorer in the African qualifying series, was enough to see the Falconets claim all three points after a one-hour delay due to bad weather in San Jose, the Costa Rican capital.
The Falconets began the game positively with Esther Onyenezide causing all sorts of trouble for the French team from midfield. The intensity and flow of the game however disrupted by heavy rainfall which saw the referee halt the game in the 20th minute with play resuming an hour later.
It was an end-to-end game for both teams after returning to the field of play but it was Nigeria who eventually found the decisive strike five minutes from the end of regulation time.
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Mercy Idoo recovered possession from midfield and played a well-weighted through ball which Sebastine latched on to, finishing with aplomb on her left foot.
The Falconets play Korea Republic next on Sunday, and victory in that game will see Nigeria go through to the quarter-finals of the tournament.
