[WATCH]: Flourish Sabastine’s late stunning strike earns Falconets victory in U20 Women’s World Cup opener

The Falconets of Nigeria kicked off their FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup campaign with tenacity and emerged 1-0 winners against South Korea in the early hours of Monday morning at the Estadio Metropolitano de Techo, Colombia.

Forward Flourish Sabastine scored a last-gasp goal to give Nigeria the full three points in the match.

A Tense First Half and Second Half Revival

The first forty-five minutes ended with great tension, and both teams ended with not many clean chances at the goal.

Nevertheless, as is usually the case with most teams, the Falconets had refreshed their energy and spirit in the second half.

Imuran went for a possible banker against Nkpa in an attempt to clinch an opener, but the opportunity became a lost one.

Imuran later took a shot at goal from a free kick but failed to make a goal; the ball landed outside the goal area.

A scary moment was when Shukurat Bakare, the goalkeeper, underestimated a free-kick nearly leading to a goal for the South Koreans.

Thankfully, the Koreans were unable to take advantage of the mistake that was committed.

Sabastine’s Late Winner

Finally, as the clock ran down the clock, the Falconets were rewarded for their hard-working effort. At 86 minutes, Sabastine tried to cross the ball into the Korean penalty area, but the Korean goalkeeper, Woo Seo-Bin, was unable to stop it from going into the Korean team’s goal.

Flourish Sabastine with a superb strike to give Falconets the lead against Korea.

86’ Nigeria 1-0 South Korea #U20WWC #NGAKOR pic.twitter.com/xXycmhKaTf

— Ojora Babatunde (@ojbsports) September 2, 2024

Osigwe had a good opportunity to make the lead double for Nigeria in the stoppage time, but he missed his shot.

Group D Standings and Upcoming Challenges

This victory sees Nigeria move level on points with Germany at the top of Group D of the competition, though the Falconets will face a testing time on Wednesday when they take on three-time world champion Germany, which could be the deciding factor of whether the Nigerian team will proceed to the knockout stage or not.

Surely, Germany, who had a very convincing 5-2 victory over Venezuela in their first match, will be very proactive.

Loreen Bender, Bayer Leverkusen’s talent, had a field day where she scored two goals in the first half.

In other games, Spain defeated the United States 1-0 and Morocco was downed 2-0 by Paraguay as the two prepared for stiff competition in the coming matches.