After coming away from their opening fixture against Canada with a hard-earned point in a game that included a saved penalty and a red card, Nigeria can still be hopeful of qualifying for the knockout round of the Women’s FIFA World Cup despite the odds originally being heavily against them at the start of the tournament.
Here are 3 things that we can expect from their next fixture against hosts Australia.
Defensive resilience
Against Canada Nigeria spent a lot of the match without the ball against a superior team, but rarely looked in danger despite being up against the goalscoring instincts of Christine Sinclair, who has scored an incredible 190 international goals- the most out of any player, male or female.
The only big chance that Nigeria conceded was a penalty, and even then goalkeeper Chiamaka Nnadozie stepped up to the challenge to make a brilliant save to keep the score 0-0. Nigeria were aggressive and physical for the full 90 minutes, and will look to repeat this in their second fixture.
Chances on the counter
Australia were favourites to qualify from the group ahead of the tournament, and despite getting a win over the Republic of Ireland in their opening match conceded chances to an Ireland side who are now out of the tournament after losing to Canada.
Nigeria’s star striker Asisat Oshoala is capable of creating chances out of nothing and will be looking to pounce on any errors in the Australian defence, especially if they push up too much in search of a goal of their own
How the group stands
Australia know that with a win they will qualify and will likely want to put on a show for their home fans, which will present a tough task for Nigeria at the beginning of the match in what will be an intimidating atmosphere.
However, they know that if they come out of this match with a point they will have a match against Ireland to take them through if other results go in their favour. There haven’t been many goals in group B so far meaning that the goal difference between Nigeria, Canada and Australia is very close- it is easy to see any two of the three sides going through.
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