In the history of FIFA Women’s World Cup at any level, only one African team has medaled at the Mundial but on Sunday, October 30, Nigeria’s Flamingos joined Ghana as the second African team to medal at the Mundial after settling for a bronze at the 2022 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in India.
Ghana became the first African team after their bronze medal feat at the 2012 edition of the World Cup.
The Nigerian girls won their third successive match on penalties to secure third place ahead of Germany.
According to FIFA, few teams gave their fans the jitters as often at the tournament as Nigeria.
Despite starting their campaign with defeat at the hands of Germany, the West African team eventually finished second in Group B to reach the knockout stage – where every one of their matches was decided by nerve-shredding penalties.
The quarter-final was a case of Miracle by name, miracle by nature as Miracle Usani was given the chance to retake her spot-kick to help Nigeria reach their first-ever semi-final in this competition.
While their last-four encounter with Colombia once again went to a shootout after remaining goalless for 90 minutes, this time it was the Nigerians who came out on the losing side in a defeat they found difficult to process.
Yet once their opponents in the third place play-off were revealed, Nigeria had fresh motivation: to exact revenge for their loss to Germany in the group stage. And the African side emerged victorious after – what else? – a penalty shootout.
Despite the Nigerians taking a seemingly unassailable 3-0 lead, the Germans launched a dramatic comeback in the last 17 minutes to take the game to spot-kicks.
As Nigeria completed their historic campaign, one stat stood out above all others: of the 11 goals they scored in normal time, a remarkable eight came from set pieces.
“We’ve worked a lot on set pieces with our coach,” forward Opeyemi Ajakaye told FIFA+ after the match.
“We practiced switching play, and finishing was also an important part of our preparations. That was the key to our success and, of course, the reason why we were able to deliver such a strong team performance.
“Losing to Germany in the group stage gave us an advantage because it meant I was sure we would win the match today, beat them and collect the bronze medal. I’m just so happy that I can’t put it into words,” Ajakaye said.