Soccer World Cup 2019 / Nigeria

Football Women's World Cup 2019 : Nigeria
Trainer	Thomas Dennerby
captain	Desire Oparanoia
Qualified as	Winner of the Africa Cup of Women 2018
Tournament result	Round of 16
Games won	1
Games tie	0
Games lost	3
Gates	2: 7

This article covers the Nigerian women's national soccer team at the 2019 women's soccer world cup in France . Nigeria took part in the finals for the eighth time, making them the only African team to qualify for all World Cup finals. For the tournament in France, Nigeria qualified as a finalist of the Africa Cup of Women 2018 , which the team won against South Africa. In France, Nigeria survived the group stage for the first time since 1999. The fourth-best group third was lost in the round of 16 against two-time world champions Germany .

qualification

For the African Nations Cup, which as used in previous years as a qualification for the World Cup finals, Nigeria, that the since February 2018 had to Sweden Thomas Dennerby is trained in two games in June 2018 the second qualifying round against Gambia qualify , the won 1-0 and 6-0.

Thomas Dennerby nominated 21 players for the tournament in Ghana , including nine players who were already in the squad for the 2015 World Cup. In addition, with Rasheedat Ajibade, Anam Imo and Glory Ogbonna, three players from the squad of the U-20 World Cup 2018 were in the team.

The record champions met South Africa in their first game and lost 1-0 - the only goal conceded for the Nigerians in seven games. The second game against Zambia was won 4-0. With a 6-0 win against Equatorial Guinea - which resulted in Equatorial Guinea's two biggest international defeats within three days - Nigeria finished second in the group and met Cameroon in the semi-finals , against which Nigeria had won in the final two of the last two games. Since both teams failed to score in 120 minutes this time, the penalty shootout had to decide, in which Nigeria prevailed 4-2 and qualified for the World Cup finals. The subsequent final against South Africa was also won on penalties after a goalless 120 minutes .

At least 18 players were used during the tournament and the two qualifying games. Five players (goalkeeper Tochukwu Oluehi , Ngozi Ebere , Onome Ebi , Francisca Ordega and Asisat Oshoala ) were used in all seven games.

The Nigerians scored a total of 17 goals in seven games. The highest number of goals were scored by Desire Oparanozie (7, including 4 in qualifying) and Asisat Oshoala (5, including 2 in qualifying). A total of five Nigerian players met in the seven games.

qualification

June 6, 2018	Bakau	Gambia	-	Nigeria	0: 1 (0: 1)	Okoronkwo
June 11, 2018	Lagos	Nigeria	-	Gambia	6: 0 (2: 0)	Oparanozie (4, including 1 goal by penalty), Oshoala (2)

Group games

Pl.	country	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	South Africa	3	2	1	0	009: 200	+7	07th
2.	Nigeria	3	2	0	1	010: 100	+9	06th
3.	Zambia	3	1	1	1	006: 500	+1	04th
4th	Equatorial Guinea	3	0	0	3	001:180	−17	00

18th November 2018	Cape Coast	Nigeria	-	South Africa	0: 1 (0: 1)	Kgatlana
November 21, 2018	Cape Coast	Nigeria	-	Zambia	4: 0 (1: 0)	Oparanozie (2), Okoronkwo , Ordega
November 24, 2018	Accra	Equatorial Guinea	-	Nigeria	0: 6 (0: 4)	Oshoala (3), Chikwelu , Ordega, Oparanozie

Semifinals

11/27/2018

Accra

Nigeria

-

Cameroon

0: 0 n.v. , 4: 2 i. E.

final

December 01, 2018

Accra

Nigeria

-

South Africa

0: 0 a.d. , 4: 3 i. E.

preparation

On January 17th, the Nigerians lost 3-0 in the four-nation tournament in Wuhua against hosts China , then won the game for 3rd place on 20th against Romania 4-1. At the end of February / beginning of March 2019, Nigeria took part in the Cyprus Cup for the first time. After a 1: 4 defeat against Austria , a 4: 3 win against Slovakia and a 0: 1 defeat against Belgium , all of which did not qualify for the World Cup, Nigeria met third in the game for 7th place on World Cup- Participants Thailand and won 3-0. On April 8th, the Nigerians lost 2-1 to World Cup participants Canada in Murcia .

Squad

No.	Player	birth date	debut	society	Country games	Country goals	Last use	World Cup games, goals	World Cup 2019
									Sp.
goal
01	Tochukwu Oluehi	05/02/1987	2007	Rivers Angels	49+	00	04/08/2019	0 (2007, 2011)	1
16	Chiamaka Nnadozie	December 8, 2000	2018	Rivers Angels	04th	00	03/06/2019		3		1
21st	Alaba Jonathan	06/01/1992	2011	Bayelsa Queens	01	00	?	0 (2011)
Defense
03	Osinachi Ohale	December 21, 1991	2010	Växjö DFF	39+	02+	04/08/2019	5 (2011, 2015)	4th
04th	Ngozi Ebere	08/05/1991	2015	Arna-Bjørnar	30+	01	04/08/2019	3 (2015)	3			1
05	Onome Ebi	05/08/1983	2003	Henan Huishang FFC	63+	02+	04/08/2019	10 (2003, 2007, 2011, 2015)	4th
14th	Faith Michael	02/28/1987	2003	Piteå IF	60+	00	04/08/2019	6 ( 2003 , 2007, 2011)	1
midfield
02	Amarachi Okoronkwo	12/12/1992	2018	Nassarawa Amazons	08+	01+	04.03.2019
06th	Evelyn Nwabuoku	11/14/1985	?	Rivers Angels	42+	03+	?	3 (2015)	2		1
10	Rita Chikwelu	03/06/1988	2007	Kristianstads DFF	53+	20+	04/08/2019	6 (2007, 2011)	3		2
15th	Rasheedat Ajibade	December 8, 1999	2018	Avaldsnes IL	07+	00+	04/08/2019		1		1
18th	Halimatu Ayinde	05/16/1995	2015	Eskilstuna United	23+	00	04/08/2019	3 (2015)	4th
19th	Chinwendu Ihezuo	04/30/1997	2018	Henan Huishang FFC	07th	01	03/06/2019		1
20th	Chidinma Okeke	08/11/2000		FC Robo	00	00			4th
23	Ogonna Chukwudi	09/14/1988	2006	Djurgården Damfotboll	20th	03	04/08/2019	2 (2007, 2011)
attack
07th	Anam Imo	11/30/2000	2018	FC Rosengård	11+	02+	04/08/2019		2
08th	Asisat Oshoala	10/09/1994	2011	FC Barcelona	26+	16+	03/06/2019	3.1 (2015)	3	1
09	Desire Oparanoia	12/17/1993	2010	EA Guingamp	39+	26+	04/08/2019	6 (2011, 2015)	4th		2
11	Chinaza Uchendu	December 3rd, 1997	2018	SC Braga / AAUM FS	07+	00	04/08/2019		3
12	Uchenna canoe	06/20/1997	2019	Southeastern Fire	01	00	04/08/2019		4th
13	Ngozi Okobi	12/14/1993	2010	Eskilstuna United	38+	03+	04/08/2019	3.1 (2015)	4th
17th	Francisca Ordega	October 19, 1993	2011	Shanghai Shenhua	36+	09+	03/06/2019	5.1 (2011, 2015)	4th		1
22nd	Alice Ogebe	03/30/1995	2019	Rivers Angels	07+	00	04/08/2019		1
Coaching staff
Head coach	Thomas Dennerby	08/13/1959	2018	Nigeria Football Federation				9 (2007, 2011)	4th
Remarks: ↑ According to FIFA squad list ↑ As of May 2019 ↑ a b Status: April 8, 2019 ↑ As Faith Ikidi ^ As a coach of Sweden

draw

Grenoble (VR + AF) Reims (VR) Rennes (VR)

Venues for the Nigerians

For the World Cup group draw that took place on December 8, 2018, Nigeria, like the other two African teams, was allocated to Pot 4 based on its placement in the FIFA world rankings of December 7, 2018. As in 1999, 2003, 2007 and 2015, the team was able to meet world champions USA or, as in 2011, Germany and host France. Ultimately, Nigeria was drawn into Group A with France, Norway and South Korea.

The Africans have only played two games against the French. The first game at the 2011 World Cup was lost 0-1, followed by an 8-0 defeat in a friendly game at Le Mans in April 2018 , the third of the three biggest defeats. There have been three games against Norway so far, the first in the preliminary round of the 1995 World Cup was lost 8-0 and is the first of the three biggest defeats of the Nigerians. Five years later, they lost 3-1 in the group stage at the Olympics. The last game was lost in 2003 in Ålesund, Norway, 2-3. So far, the Nigerians have only met South Korea at the U-20s (they won 2-0 in 2012 and 2-1 in 2014 , in both cases they both survived the preliminary round together) and U-17 World Championships (they won 2-1 in 2008 and lost 5-6 after extra time in the quarter-finals in 2010. South Korea then won the world title).

Pl.	country	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	France	3	3	0	0	007: 100	+6	09
2.	Norway	3	2	0	1	006: 300	+3	06th
3.	Nigeria	3	1	0	2	002: 400	−2	03
4th	South Korea	3	0	0	3	001: 800	−7	00

Sat., June 8, 2018 in Reims
Norway	-	Nigeria	3: 0 (3: 0)
Wed., June 12, 2019 in Grenoble
Nigeria	-	South Korea	2: 0 (1: 0)
Mon., June 17, 2019 in Rennes
Nigeria	-	France	0: 1 (0: 0)

Knockout round

As fourth-best group third, Nigeria met the German team in the round of 16, group winners of group B. The Nigerians had to wait until the final whistle of the game between Chile and Thailand on June 20, which was won 2-0 by Chile, to be safe in the knockout - Stand round. The Chileans awarded a penalty in the final minutes and missed the round of 16 due to the one more goal conceded.

Germany were already opponents of the Nigerian team in the first World Cup game in 1991, which was lost 4-0. At the 2011 World Cup, they both met in the second group game and Germany won 1-0. Against Germany, the Nigerians had to accept one of their three biggest defeats in November 2010 with 8-0.

Several players from both teams faced each other in the finals of the U-20 World Cup in 2010 and 2014. On the Nigerian side Alaba Jonathan , Amarachi Okoronkwo , Osinachi Ohale , Desire Oparanozie and Ebere Orji (all 2010), Halimatu Ayinde , Chinwendu Ihezuo , Uchenna Kanu and Asisat Oshoala (all 2014), on the German side Almuth Schult , Marina Hegering , Svenja Huth , Turid Knaak , Dzsenifer Marozsán and Alexandra Popp (all 2010), Linda Dallmann , Sara Däbritz and Lina Magull (all 2014). The German team won both games.

Sat., June 22nd, 2019 in Grenoble
Germany	-	Nigeria	3: 0 (2: 0)

Awards

• Asisat Oshoala : Player of the game against South Korea

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Nigeria at the U-20 World Cup 2018
2. ↑ There are no substitutions listed in the CAF match reports for the qualifying matches. So other players may have been used.
3. ↑ fifa.com: Pot allocation for World Cup draw according to the latest world rankings
4. ↑ The players in italics were not used in the round of 16.