Nigeria's female U-20 team, falconets, beat their counterparts 3-0 in a World Cup Qualifying match in Abuja on February 5, 2022.

Nigeria’s U-20 women’s team, the Falconets are confident about picking a ticket to the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Costa Rica when they host Senegal in Benin City.

This year’s FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup will take place in Costa Rica in August.

Forward Flourish Sebastine scored a hat-trick in the first leg before the home team earned and put away a penalty in the final seconds, for a 3-1 victory for Nigeria. The Falconets have finished as runners-up at two editions of the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup, in 2010 and 2014, and reached the semi-finals in 2012.

The Senegalese delegation arrived in Nigeria on Thursday morning, and would be flown to Benin City on Friday. The match will kick-off by 4pm at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium on Saturday.

To reach this final stage, the Falconets humiliated their counterparts from Central African Republic 11-0 on aggregate, before beating Republic of Congo 4-0 in Brazzaville in a third round, first leg match. The result discouraged the Congolese from flying to Nigeria for the second leg.

In the fourth round, the Falconets outclassed Cameroon’s Young Lionesses 3-0 on aggregate.

Meanwhile, the Confederation of African Football has appointed officials from Eswatini to take charge of Saturday’s encounter. Letticia Antonella Viana will be referee, with compatriots Cosma Nxumalo (assistant referee 1), Patricia Mkhaliph (assistant referee 2) and Rebeccah Tencwala Soko (fourth official) also involved. The match commissioner is Aisha Nalule from Uganda. (Channels TV)

•PHOTO: Nigeria’s female U-20 team, falconets, beat their counterparts 3-0 in a World Cup Qualifying match in Abuja on February 5, 2022.

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