Nigerian Women's National Football Team / World Championships

Federal Republic of Nigeria
Federal Republic of Nigeria

World Cup record scorer :	Rita Nwadike and Nkiri Okosieme (3 each)
World Cup record player:	Onome Ebi (14)
Rank :	13
Balance sheet
26 World Cup games 4 wins 3 draws 19 defeats 20:63 goals
statistics
First World Cup game Nigeria 0: 4 Germany Jiangmen ( CHN ); November 17, 1991
Biggest World Cup victories Nigeria 2-0 Denmark Landover ( USA ); June 27, 1999 Nigeria 2-0 South Korea Grenoble ( FRA ); June 12, 2019
Biggest World Cup defeat Nigeria 8-0 Norway Karlstad ( SWE ); June 6, 1995
successes
World Championship
Participation in the finals	8 ( first : 1991 )
Best results	Quarter-finals 1999
Best placements in the countries that host the FIFA World Cup
(As of June 22, 2019 )

The article provides a detailed account of the Nigerian national soccer team for women at world championships . Nigeria was the only African team to qualify for all women's World Cup finals and is 13th in the all-time table as the best African but worst team with seven participations and the team with the most goals conceded, but was able to improve by one place compared to the last World Cup . The Nigerians only reached the quarter-finals once and have so far not been able to build on the successes of their U-20 team, which twice reached the final of the U-20 Women's World Cup .

The national team at world championships

Overview

year	Host country	Participation until ...	opponent	Result	Trainer	Comments and special features
1991	People's Republic of China	Preliminary round	Germany , Italy , Rep. China	10.	Jo Bonfrere	Eliminated without a point or goal as bottom of the group
1995	Sweden	Preliminary round	Norway , Canada , England	11.	Paul Hamilton	First point win in the preliminary round but missed Olympic qualification
1999	United States	Quarter finals	Brazil	7th	Mabo Ismaila	Golden Goal defeat in the quarter-finals, first victory in a World Cup match in the preliminary round
2003	United States	Preliminary round	North Korea , USA , Sweden	15th	Samuel Okpodu	Eliminated without a point or goal as bottom of the group
2007	People's Republic of China	Preliminary round	Sweden , North Korea , USA	13.	Ntiero Effiom
2011	Germany	Preliminary round	France , Germany , Canada	9.	Ngozi Uche	First win by an African team against a CONCACAF team (1-0 against Canada)
2015	Canada	Preliminary round	Sweden , Australia , USA	21st	Edwin Okon	After a draw and two defeats, knocked out last in the group.
2019	France	Round of 16	Germany		Thomas Dennerby	Nigeria qualified as the first finalist in the 2018 Africa Cup of Nations.

statistics

(Information incl. 2019: eight world championships)

• not participated: never (0%)
• qualified: eight times (100%)
  • Preliminary round: six times (75%; 1991, 1995, 2003, 2007, 2011 and 2015)
  • Round of 16: once (12.5%; 2019)
  • Quarter-finals: once (12.5%; 1999)

The tournaments

World Cup 1991 in the People's Republic of China

The Nigerians qualified as Africa champions for the first women's World Cup . For this they had to play against Ghana in two games , which they won 5-1 and 2-1. In the semifinals, Guinea was the opponent and Nigeria won both games here too (3-0 and 4-0). In the final, neighboring Cameroon was the opponent, who had reached the final without a fight after several teams had withdrawn. Nigeria won these games 2-0 and 4-0.

In the People's Republic of China , Nigeria was drawn into the group with European champions Germany , Italy and the Republic of China (Taiwan) . On November 17, 1991, they played their first World Cup game in Jiangmen and lost to Germany 4-0. In the second game followed a 0: 1 against Italy and after a 0: 2 against the Republic of China in the last group game, Nigeria was eliminated from bottom of the group without a point or goal.

World Cup 1995 in Sweden

Four years later, the Nigerians prevailed again in six games at the African Cup . First, Sierra Leone was defeated 9-0 and 2-0. The 9: 0 is one of the two biggest victories of the Nigerians. In the semifinals, Ghana was the opponent and here too no goal had to be accepted in the 3-0 and 2-0 victories, in the finals against South Africa it was different, but the result was 4-1 and 7-1 nevertheless clearly.

At the World Cup, runner-up world champions Norway , Canada and England were drawn. Nigeria started with a defeat again, but the 8-0 defeat against Norway is one of the two biggest defeats the Nigerians have ever seen. In the 3: 3 against Canada after 0: 2 and 1: 3 deficits in the meantime , the first point was finally won and Rita Nwadike scored the first World Cup goal for Nigeria to make it 1: 2. After a 2: 3 defeat against England, Nigeria again only took the last place in the group and were eliminated, as did the group third Canada. Since both were not among the eight best teams, they also missed the qualification for the first women's football tournament at the 1996 Olympic Games .

World Cup 1999 in the USA

For the third world championship, for which the Africans received a further starting place after increasing the field of participants to 16 teams, Nigeria qualified via the 1998 African Championship , which was now held in tournament form in Nigeria . They defeated Morocco 8-0 and the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Egypt 6-0 in the preliminary round, and Cameroon 6-0 in the semifinals - which means they have already qualified for the World Cup. In the final, Ghana was defeated 2-0. Finalist Ghana was also qualified for the World Cup by beating the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the semi-final.

In the United States, North Korea was the opening opponent and on June 20, 1999 Nigeria achieved their first victory in a World Cup game with a 2-1 win in Pasadena . This was followed by a 7-1 defeat against hosts USA . With a 2-0 win in the last group game against Denmark , Nigeria finished second in the group for the first time and reached the quarter-finals against South American champions Brazil . After 35 minutes it was 3-0 for Brazil, but since the Nigerians also scored three goals in the second half, there was an extension. In this Sissi then achieved the first golden goal at a World Cup for women to 4: 3 for the South Americans. As the seventh best team, Nigeria qualified for the women's soccer tournament at the 2000 Olympic Games . Brazil then failed in the semifinals against hosts USA, but were able to defeat the dethroned defending champions Norway in the small final with a win on penalties .

2003 World Cup in the USA

The 2003 World Cup should actually take place again in the People's Republic of China . Because of the SARS epidemic, the tournament was moved to the USA at short notice. This was the second time that the World Cup took place in the USA. In the qualification , for which the women's African Cup of Nations 2002 served again and which was again held in Nigeria, Nigeria was automatically qualified as host for the finals. In the group stage, Nigeria lost a game at an African Cup for the first time after beating Ethiopia 3-0 . Ghana caused the surprise with a 1-0 win against the hosts. With a 5-1 win against Mali , Nigeria still reached the semi-finals and won 5-0 against South Africa. In the final, the team was able to take revenge for the defeat in the preliminary round and win 2-0 against Ghana again to become African champions. Ghana was also allowed to go to the World Cup again.

In the USA, they met North Korea in the first group game like four years before, but this time they lost 3-0. This was followed by a 0: 5 against hosts USA and a 0: 3 against Sweden . This was the second time that Nigeria were eliminated with no points or goalless.

World Cup 2007 in the People's Republic of China

Four years later the World Cup took place in the People's Republic of China for the second time . In the 2006 African Football Championship for women , which again served as a qualification and was again held in Nigeria - as Gabon withdrew as host, Nigeria prevailed in the group stage with three wins against Equatorial Guinea (4: 2), Algeria (6: 0) and South Africa (2-0) through and reached the semi-finals. Cameroon was not a stumbling block in their 5-0 victory either and so it came to the final again against Ghana, which Nigeria won 1-0. Both drove back to the World Cup.

As four years earlier, North Korea, the USA and Sweden were the opponents at the final round. They lost again to North Korea (0: 2) and the USA (0: 1), but not as high as four years earlier. Against Sweden it was even enough to score 1: 1 in the first game, which meant that the Swedes were eliminated as third party and thus for the first time did not survive the preliminary round.

World Cup 2011 in Germany

For the World Cup in Germany , the Nigerians qualified as African champions again after failing to win the title at the 2008 championship for the first time. With two wins (2-1 and 3-1) against Ivory Coast , Nigeria qualified for the championship in South Africa . With three wins, Mali (5: 0), South Africa (2: 1) and Tanzania (3: 0) were then distanced in the preliminary round . In the semifinals, they won 5-1 against Cameroon and in the final, Nigeria could retaliate for the semi-final defeat against Equatorial Guinea two years earlier and win back the title 4-2. By participating in the finals, Equatorial Guinea had also qualified for the World Cup for the first time.

In Germany, Nigeria was drawn into the group with World Cup hosts Germany , France and Canada . Nigeria played the first game of the World Cup against the French a few hours before the official opening game and lost 1-0. There was also a 1-0 defeat against the hosts in the second game. After a 1-0 win against Canada in the last game, however, 3rd place was taken. Nevertheless, the Nigerians left again.

2015 World Cup in Canada

In the qualification , the Nigerians prevailed again as winners of the African Cup of Nations 2014 . For this they first had to qualify by playing against Sierra Leone, but since Sierra Leone withdrew, there were only two games in the second qualifying round against Rwanda , which were won 4-1 and 8-0. In Namibia they met Ivory Coast in the preliminary round and won 4-2. The semi-finals were reached with a 6-0 win against Zambia and a 2-0 win against hosts Namibia . Here South Africa was defeated 2: 1 with which the World Cup ticket was booked. In the final, Cameroon could then be defeated 2-0. The Cameroonians also qualified for the World Cup for the first time with a 2-1 win after extra time against Ivory Coast. By increasing the field of participants to 24 teams, the Africans had yet another starting place. The Ivory Coast secured this with a 1-0 win against South Africa in the game for third place and thus participated for the first time.

When the World Cup groups were drawn, the Nigerians were not seeded and were drawn to Group D with the USA , the Central and North American champions . Other group opponents were Australia for the first time and Sweden for the third time . The group was considered the most balanced of the World Cup; it was the only one with four teams who had reached at least the semi-finals in their last continental title bouts. Nigeria could only win a point in the 3: 3 opening game against Sweden, then lost 2: 0 against Australia and 1: 1 against eventual world champions USA. So they were eliminated as the last group.

World Cup 2019 in France

The qualification for the third World Cup in Europe takes place for the African teams via the Africa Cup of Women 2018 , which will take place in Ghana from November 17 to December 1, 2018 . The three best teams in the tournament can qualify. In qualifying for this championship, Nigeria did not have to arrive until the second round and met Gambia, whose women's national team had played an international match for the first time in April 2018 and prevailed against Burkina Faso on penalties in the first round . Nigeria first won 1-0 in Gambia and then the home game 6-0. At the Africa Cup of Nations, Nigeria lost their first group match against South Africa 1-0, but then won against Zambia (4-0) and Equatorial Guinea (6-0, one of the two biggest defeats in Equatorial Guinea). The Nigerians moved into the semi-finals against Cameroon as second in the group. Since 120 minutes passed goalless there, there was a penalty shoot-out, which Nigeria won 4-2 and qualified for the World Cup by reaching the finals. In the final against South Africa, the decision also had to be made by penalty shoot-out and the Nigerians won this too.

In France, the hosts, Norway and, for the first time, South Korea were the opponents in the group stage. Nigeria started with a 3-0 defeat against ex-world champions Norway, but then beat South Korea 2-0. After the 0-1 defeat against France in the last group game, the Nigerians had to wait three days until the last game of the group stage and fear for their place in the round of 16. Ultimately, they benefited from the fact that Chile only beat Thailand 2-0 and missed a penalty in the process. Nigeria was fourth-best in the group due to a less conceded goal. As this, the Nigerians met two-time former world champions Germany in the round of 16 and lost 3-0.

Games

Nigeria has played 26 World Cup games so far, the fewest of all teams with 8 appearances. Four of them were won, 19 lost and three ended in a draw. One game went into overtime because a winner had to be determined and was lost to a golden goal . Nigeria never played in the opening game, but played their first game in 2011. Nigeria played three times against the hosts: 1999, 2003 and 2011. Nigeria played three times against the eventual world champions (1995, 1999 and 2015 in the preliminary round) and twice against the defending champions (2003 and 2011 in the preliminary round). Nigeria played the most frequently (4 times) against the USA. 13 games - including the first ten in a row - were the first against the respective opponents.

Nigeria has so far played against teams from all other confederations except Oceania and its own confederation. The champions of all other confederations except Oceania and their own confederation have also been played against (8 times), most often (4 times) against the middle and north champions .

Most of the games played Onome Ebi (14), who was the first Nigerian to take part in her 5th World Cup in 2019. Rita Nwadike and Nkiri Okosieme scored the most World Cup goals for Nigeria (3 each).

All World Cup games
No.	date	Result	opponent	venue		occasion	Remarks
1	11/17/1991	0: 4	Germany	Jiangmen ( CHN )	*	Preliminary round	First game against Germany
2	11/19/1991	0: 1	Italy	Zhongshan ( CHN )	*	Preliminary round	First game against Italy, the Italians only game against an African team
3	11/21/1991	0: 2	Rep. China	Jiangmen ( CHN )	*	Preliminary round	First game against the Republic of China
4th	06/06/1995	0: 8	Norway	Karlstad ( SWE )	*	Preliminary round	First game against Norway, one of the two biggest defeats (also a 0: 8 against Germany in a friendly match)
5	06/08/1995	3: 3	Canada	Helsingborg ( SWE )	*	Preliminary round	First game against Canada
6th	06/10/1995	2: 3	England	Karlstad ( SWE )	*	Preliminary round	First game against England
7th	06/20/1999	2: 1	North Korea	Pasadena ( USA )	*	Preliminary round	First game against North Korea
8th	06/24/1999	1: 7	United States	Chicago ( USA )	A.	Preliminary round	First game against the USA, highest loss for an African team against a CONCACAF team
9	06/27/1999	2-0	Denmark	Landover ( USA )	*	Preliminary round	First game against Denmark
10	07/01/1999	3: 4 a.d.	Brazil	Landover ( USA )	*	Quarter finals	First game against Brazil First game against a reigning South American champions
11	09/20/2003	0: 3	North Korea	Philadelphia ( USA )	*	Preliminary round
12	09/25/2003	0: 5	USA (TV)	Philadelphia ( USA )	A.	Group game
13	09/28/2003	0: 3	Sweden	Columbus ( USA )	*	Group game	First game against Sweden
14th	09/11/2007	1: 1	Sweden	Chengdu ( CHN )	*	Preliminary round
15th	09/14/2007	0: 2	North Korea	Chengdu ( CHN )	*	Preliminary round
16	09/18/2007	0: 1	United States	Shanghai ( CHN )	*	Preliminary round
17th	06/26/2011	0: 1	France	Sinsheim ( DEU )	*	Preliminary round	First game against France
18th	06/30/2011	0: 1	Germany (TV)	Frankfurt am Main ( DEU )	A.	Preliminary round
19th	07/05/2011	1-0	Canada	Dresden ( DEU )	*	Preliminary round	The only win by an African team against a CONCACAF team
20th	06/08/2015	3: 3	Sweden	Winnipeg ( CAN )	*	Preliminary round
21st	06/12/2015	0: 2	Australia	Winnipeg ( CAN )	*	Preliminary round	First game against Australia
22nd	06/16/2015	0: 1	United States	Vancouver ( CAN )	*	Preliminary round
23	06/08/2019	0: 3	Norway	Reims ( FRA )	*	Preliminary round
24	06/12/2019	2-0	South Korea	Grenoble ( FRA )	*	Preliminary round	First game against South Korea
25th	06/17/2019	0: 1	France	Rennes ( FRA )	A.	Preliminary round
26th	06/22/2019	0: 3	Germany	Grenoble ( FRA )	*	Round of 16

Note: Teams in bold were champions of their confederation at the time of the match.

The three victories of the Nigerian team were also their highest victories against these countries:

•  Denmark 2-0 (1999, preliminary round) - only game against Denmark
•  Canada 1-0 (2011, preliminary rounds) - only win against Canada
•  North Korea 2-1 (1999, preliminary round) - only win against North Korea
•  South Korea 2-0 (2019, preliminary round) - only game against South Korea

The Nigerian team suffered their biggest defeats at a World Cup tournament against these teams:

•  Australia 0-2 (2015, preliminary round) - only game against Australia
•  Rep. China 0: 2 (1991, preliminary round) - only game against Rep. China
•  England 2-3 (1995, preliminary round) - only defeat to England
•  France 0-1 (2011, preliminary round) - only game against France
•  Italy 0-1 (1991, preliminary round) - only game against Italy
•  North Korea 0-3 (2003, preliminary round)
•  Norway 0: 8 (1995, preliminary round)
•  Sweden 0-3 (2003, preliminary round)
•  USA 1: 7 (1999, preliminary round)

Records

Players

• The youngest participant in a World Cup: Ifeanyi Chiejine (born May 17, 1983). At 16 years and 34 days, she was used on June 20, 1999 in the game against North Korea.
• The oldest participant in a World Cup was until June 16, 2015: Perpetua Nkwocha (Nigeria). On June 12, 2015, at 39 years and 160 days, she surpassed the previous age record of Meg ( Brazil ), who played against Germany at the 1995 World Cup with 39 years and 159 days. Then four days later in the game against the USA - in which she was only on the bench - she was replaced by Christie Rampone (USA) as the oldest player, who came on eight days before her 40th birthday.

team

• Nigeria, Brazil, Denmark, Germany and Norway played the most frequently (3 times each) against the hosts.

Trainer

• Only Nigeria competed with another coach in all eight competitions.

opponent

• First expulsion: Lin Hui Fang (Rep. China) at the 1991 World Cup in the 6th minute of the game against Nigeria (final score 2: 0)
• The quickest warning: Ri Hyang-ok (North Korea) in the 1st minute of the game North Korea - Nigeria 1999

Negative records

team

• Most frequent elimination in the preliminary round: 6 times in 7 participations
• Most defeats: 17 in 24 games
• Most goals conceded overall: 63
• Worst goal difference: −43
• The longest series without a goal of their own: Nigeria (1991–1995 and 2007–2011), Ghana (1999–2003), Japan (1991–2005) and North Korea (2007–2011) with 4 games each.
• Biggest defeat at a World Cup tournament: 1995 in Sweden - Nigeria against Norway 0: 8 in the preliminary round
• Nigeria had to accept their first golden goal against Brazil in 1999 in the quarter-finals at 3: 4 a.
• Nigeria was the only country to lose three times to the hosts.
• Nigeria was the only country that failed to score in two finals: 1991 and 2003

Players

• Most goals conceded: Ann Chi Jine 33 in 10 games between 1991 and 1999, only one game without a goal

spectator

• The game with the fewest spectators: Nigeria - Canada with 250 spectators at the 1995 World Cup

See also

• Nigerian national soccer team / world championships

Web links

• FIFA Women's World Cup ^TM

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} In some statistics, e.g. B. FIFA is named Washington, DC as the venue.
2. ↑ The placements from 5th place onwards were determined by FIFA without any placement games, see Technical Report FIFA Women's World Cup Canada 2015 ™ , page 159
3. ↑ Nigeria - Canada 3: 3 (2: 1 (sic))
4. ↑ fifa.com: "Olympic Football Tournament Atlanta Women 1996"
5. ↑ framba.de: "Women's World Cup 2015: group draw degenerates into a farce" ( Memento of the original from December 9, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
6. ↑ Cameroon Women 0 - 0 Nigeria Women
7. ↑ In its statistics, FIFA lists the game against Denmark on June 27, 1999 as its first game http://de.fifa.com/mm/document/fifafacts/womcompwwc/51/99/41/stats_kit_1_draw_neutral.pdf ( Memento from January 28, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 335 kB), but in another FIFA statistic it is already in the list of the game against North Korea on June 20, 1999 [1]
8. ↑ http://de.fifa.com/mm/document/fifafacts/womcompwwc/51/99/41/stats_kit_1_draw_neutral.pdf ( Memento from January 28, 2015 in the Internet Archive )