Flamingoes, Spain battle for s/final ticket

Nigeria’s Flamingoes will in the early hours of tomorrow confront their Spanish counterparts in a crucial quarter-final match of the ongoing U-17 Women World Cup Finals taking place at Costa Rica.

Both teams alongside Venezuela, Italy, Ghana, Canada, Japan and Mexico progressed to the last eight stages after qualifying from their various group matches.
Incidentally, Nigeria and Ghana are among the countries that are still flying African flag so high, while another African side, Zambia, have been eliminated, same way hosts, Costa Rica, were sent packing in the group stage of the competition.

From onset, the Flamingoes, who did not kick ball to qualify for the 4th edition of this competition, began their quest for the prestigious diadem in a gradual style going by the number of goals they scored so far, beating China and Columbia by 2-1, respectively.
They later turned the heat on Mexico, hitting them 3 – 0 even though their Latin American counterparts had thrashed two other Group D teams by 4 – 0 each.

As the clock winds to before the quarter-final encounter, Nigeria cadet female team who topped their group with maximum nine points in the first round would be hoping to crush the barrier that prevented previous squads from not reaching the semi-final stage let alone liff the trophy since the tournament began five years ago.

The Flamingoes were close to crossing the quarter final hurdle in the last edition held in Azerbaijan before they were stopped by France in 2012 for the second consecutive times they got to the last eight stages.

In 2010, Korea Republic also became the barrier for Flamingoes as they aimed to reach semi-final of the tournament hosted by Trinidad and Tobago.
Going into tomorrow’s game, the Spanish side, who appear to have better records as far as the competition is concerned having finished as the third best team in 2010, would, however, face an awesome Nigerian side who will want to beat all odds to surpass previous records when they file out at Edgardo Baltodano Briceno Stadium in the city of Liberia.