Nigeria’s national under-17 girl’s football team, the Flamingos, must now overcome their Ethiopian counterparts to earn a ticket to this year’s FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup finals taking place in India in October.
This came to light after they defeated hosts Egypt 2-0 in Cairo on Saturday to advance on a 6-0 aggregate into the final round of the African qualifiers.
The team’s top goalscorer, Opeyemi Ajakaiye, had opened the scores in the fifth minute of the match before Aminat Bello added a second nine minutes later at the Petrosports Stadium.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Flamingos had about two weeks earlier in Abuja had beaten the Egyptian side 4-0.
They will now meet the Ethiopians who qualified on a 3-1 aggregate, after losing 1-0 in the second leg clash in Addis Ababa on Saturday.
They had defeated South Africa 3-0 away in Johannesburg in the first leg of their third-round clash.
The Ethiopians had edged Uganda on the away goal rule in the second round, with the aggregate scoreline stalemated at 3-3.
The Flamingos, who have played in every edition of the FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup except one, are undefeated in this qualifying series and have yet to concede a goal.
They hammered the Democratic Republic of Congo 3-0 in Kinshasa and 5-0 in Benin City, for 8-0 the aggregate scoreline, before sending the Egyptians packing 6-0.
The first leg of the Nigeria/Ethiopia final round fixture will hold on May 21, with the second leg taking place two weeks later.