Following a tense quarter-final battle in Morocco, the Flamingos reach last four of the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup thanks to an 89th-minute winner against Venezuela.

Captain Azeezatt Oduntan scored a late penalty in the 89th minute to give Nigeria the win.

Flamingos Reach Last Four

The semi-final qualification comes four years after they last made that stage and won bronze.

The quarter-final fixture was a close contest, with Nigeria creating several opportunities but finding Venezuela goalkeeper Valeria Rebanales a huge stumbling block.

The Flamingos enjoyed much of the attacking play in the first half, but Rebanales produced a couple of saves to keep the scores level.

Midfielder Favour Nkwocha also received a caution as Nigeria continued to press for an opening goal.

Head Coach Hakeem Busari made his first change of the evening, introducing Precious Oscar for Oluwakemi Adegbuyi as Nigeria looked to find a way through.

“When everybody was expecting maybe the game might go to penalties, we had to let them see from the bench that we can get it. Even though in a split second mistakes can occur, we can get our goal, and again we were able to get a spot kick, which usually changes the narrative.”

The deadlock remained unbroken until the 88th minute, when the referee initially awarded Nigeria a penalty before being invited to the VAR monitor to review the decision.

Following the review, the referee upheld the penalty, and Oduntan stepped forward to convert from the spot with a minute left on the clock, giving Nigeria the breakthrough.

Top scorer Oluebube Umejiaku had won the penalty for the Flamingos, setting up Oduntan to deliver the decisive moment of the contest.

The victory sends Nigeria into the semi-finals, where they will face Brazil, who secured a 2-1 win over China in their quarter-final encounter.