The Super Falcons of Nigeria have crashed out of the ongoing FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand after suffering a penalty shootout loss to the Lionesses of England.
The Nigerians who were on the verge of becoming the first women football team from Africa to qualify for the quarter finals stage of the FIFA Women’s World cup lost out after coming very close.
The Nigerians who were clear underdogs against the high flying European Champions put up a sterling performance that could have ultimately won them a place in the quarter finals of ongoing FIFA Women’s World Cup.
The Randy Wandrum led Super Falcons showed that their performances in the group stage of the competition were no fluke as they kept the star-studded Lionesses at bay for more than 120 minutes of action at the Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, Australia.
England forward, Lauren James was shown a straight red card for stamping on Super Falcon’s Michelle Alozie. The Chelsea Women’s talismanic footballer lost her head and stamped on Alozie while the later was on the grass and was shown the way out by the match official.
The Super Falcons then exploited the numerical advantage to pin the Lionesses back and spent most of the extra time controlling and dictating proceedings on the football pitch but lacked the finishing touches to secure an outright victory.
As neither side could break the deadlock at the completion of extra time, the match headed into penalty shootout where the fates of both teams was decided via the lottery of penalties.
Sadly, the e Super Falcons of Nigeria could not jump over the last hurdle as Desire Oparanoze and Michelle Alozie failed to convert their spot kicks which allowed the Lionesses to seal a memorable 4-2 penalty shootout win.
