The Nigerian defense was mostly secure. In front of the largely empty stands, a Nigerian fan group had reason to celebrate early on.
After the tie on the first matchday of Group C, the Nigerian Falconets started the attack against Japan with a fast game: the strikers Amarachi Okoronkwo and Desire Oparanozie were able to overcome the Japanese goalkeeper Erina Yamane after 6 and 17 minutes . Offensive talent Esther Sunday also put pressure on the Japanese defensive by changing positions until she was substituted in the second half. After the 2-0 win, Nigeria continued to retreat, but tried more often to achieve success with fast play.
The Japanese offensive efforts developed slowly; short passes made it difficult for the Nigerians to use skillful positional play; Even with long balls, the Japanese could hardly get at the often taller and more athletic Nigerians. In a committed, but mostly fair game, it took until the 62nd minute until the Japanese playmaker Mana Iwabuchi was able to use a mistake by goalkeeper Alaba Jonathan to score. Iwabuchi, who is only 1.53 meters tall and was named Asian youth footballer of the year in 2008, was also able to set offensive accents for Japan. After the goal, however, Nigeria built up more pressure again, were able to increase their share of the ball to a total of 51 percent, and came up with chances through Esther Sunday , Ebere Orji and Cecilia Nku . Most recently, Desire Oparanozie missed a goal opportunity after another counterattack in the final minute.
↑ a b c d The identical number of spectators for the first and second as well as the third and fourth group games result from the fact that the tickets were valid for both games on the same day. In fact, none of the games reached the number of spectators suggested by the officially stated number of tickets distributed.
Mexico
Nigeria
Japan
England
1-0 Harrop (45th)
Mayor (90.)
