Nigeria’s under-20 women football team, the Falconets, on Monday in Bogota lost 0-1 to their Mexican counterparts in a friendly match. The match played at the Club Banco de la República in the Colombian capital city was the final game in their preparations for the FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup holding there.
Mexico scored the lone goal in the 15th minute, through a volley by Alejandra Lomelí. Earlier, the 2010 and 2014 silver medallists had on Friday beaten Australia 2-1 as part of their preparations.
Speaking after Monday’s match, Falconets’ team head coach Christopher Danjuma said the game was their final warm-up before the tournament proper.
“The friendly matches were crucial for the Falconets as they have helped the team fine-tune their strategies and assess their readiness for the tournament. We won five of our six qualifying matches with healthy scorelines and have added victory over the Australians, even though we lost to the Mexico team.
“That the team played two international friendly matches and won one and lost one shows the girls are ready and we will work more on our lapses before the competition,” he said.
Danjuma however acknowledged that the FIFA World Cup finals would not be easy.
“The fact that we are up against Korea Republic and three-time winners Germany in our first two matches means we need to be at our best physically, mentally and psychologically. Physically and mentally, I believe we are in shape. Psychologically, we are good also.
“The team left Nigeria to Colombia for two weeks so that we can play quality friendly matches in readiness and we have done that,” he said.
Nigeria are with Germany, Venezuela and the Korea Republic in Group D of the tournament scheduled for Saturday to September 22. Nigeria will start their campaign against Korea Republic on Sept. 2 before taking on Germany two days later on Sept. 4 and Venezuela on Sept. 7. Spain are the competition’s defending champions after their success at Costa Rica in 2022.
