THE Flamingos of Nigeria yesterday trounced Soccer Talent Academy 9-1 in Abuja in their first warm-up match in preparation for their FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup qualifier against Burkina Faso.
Talent Academy scored first but the U-17 women’s national team pulled level through Harmony Chidi few minutes later to open the floodgate of goals.
Two minutes later, Etim Edidiong put the Flamingos ahead with a superb strike from outside the box.
The two goalscorers then netted again to give the Flamingos a comfortable lead at half-time. On resumption of the second half, the Flamingos continued the push for more goals and their efforts paid off when Yetunde Ayantosho added another one from close range.
Aisha Animashaun then added a brace before Funke Arogundade and Ramota Kareem wrapped up the scoring.
After the match, Flamingos coach Bankole Olowookere pointed out the areas the technical crew must tweak before jetting out of the country.
“Despite scoring a lot of goals today, we missed a lot of chances too and we can not afford to do that in a competitive match,” he said.
“We must utilise our chances to score goals against Burkina Faso so that the return leg at home will be a walk in the park for us.
“I have noticed one or two things that must be corrected before our next friendly match and the girls must understand the difference between training session and match situation.”
The Flamingos delegation will depart from Abuja on Wednesday to Bamako, Mali, where they will face Burkina Faso on Saturday.
Nigeria have appeared in every edition of the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup except one — the 2018 tournament held in Uruguay.
