Falconets Thrash Lady Starlets

Nigeria took a huge step towards reaching the next round of the 2016 FIFA U20 Women's World Cup Qualifiers by thrashing Liberia 7-1 in the first leg of the second round on Sunday evening.


Yetunde Adeboyejo thumped in the opener and it was 2-0 after Chinwendu Ihezuo scored her only goal of the one-sided encounter.

Adeboyejo increased the lead for the Nigerians, but the homers reduced the deficit late in the first half.

A brilliant hat-trick from Adeboyejo, a solitary strike from Juliet Sunday and a brace netted by Amarachi Orjinma put Nigeria in total control of the tie.

With the second leg coming up in Port Harcourt in the next forthnight, a passage to the next round is now almost guaranteed for the Falconets.

Adeboyejo had a clear chance to put the Nigerians ahead inside 5 minutes but she hit her shot straight at the goalkeeper.

The Bayelsa Queens forward had only a few minutes to dwell on her miss as she put her team ahead in the 15th minute.

Liberia, who had a good preparation for the game appeared stunned and were totally disorganised.

Adeboyejo let fly with a fierce drive as Nigeria threatened to completely dominate their opponents.

A second goal looked inevitable and it came from Ihezuo one minute after the half-hour mark.

At that point, Nigeria were firmly in control and Adeboyejo grabbed her second goal in the 36th minute, before the home team reduced the deficit in the dying moments of the first stanza.

The goal was an encouraging sign for the Lady Starlets as the first half ended 3-1 at the Antoinette Tubman Stadium.

However, any sense of a recovery from Liberia was soon dispelled when Adeboyejo made it a treble for herself and she also restored Nigeria's three-goal advantage on the hour mark.

Fifteeen minutes to the end of the game, things got even worse for Liberia as Juliet scored Nigeria's fifth goal.

The visitors, who have always managed to achieve spectacular results despite the poor preparation that the Nigeria Football Federation usually set-out for them looked organised and fearless.

Liberia's misery was increased when the speedy Amarachi registered her first goal of the match twelve minutes from time.

Lady Starlets' humiliation was complete when Amarachi drove in a fizzing effort from the edge of the box as the match ended 7-1 in Monrovia.

The winner will proceed to the third round of qualifiers and clash with the winner of the Namibia/DR Congo fixture.