Nigeria: Fifa Women’s World Cup – France Shocks Falcons 1-0

Daily Independent (Lagos)

26 June 2011

France’s striker Marie-Laure Delie being pursued by Nigeria’s midfielder Glory Iroka during their FIFA women’s football World Cup at the Rhein-Neckar-Arena in Sinsheim, southern Germany on Sunday. France won the match 1-0.

A goal from Marie-Laure Delie was enough to hand France a hard fought 1-0 victory over Nigeria Super Falcons in their FIFA Women’s World Cup Group A opening match on Sunday afternoon at the Rhein-Neckar-Arena in Sinsheim.

The opening stages of the match saw France controlling the possession stakes and creating the better of the opportunities in front of goal.

Still, despite its early domination the Les Bleus were only able to get their first real effort on the Nigerian goal in the 17th minute when Elise Bussaglia let fly from about 30-yards out.

The Super Falcons keeper Precious Dede, however, was up to the task with a brilliant save diving full stretch to her left to palm the long range shot around the post.

From the resulting corner-kick, though, France almost found the back of the net when Gaetane Thiney met the ball at the front post, but she saw her flicked shot strike the upright and bounce away from danger.

As the half progressed Nigeria slowly found their footing in the match and with it created the best chance of the opening 45 minutes when a great through ball saw Desire Oparanozie with only the keeper to beat.

Oparanozie used her pace and skill to get behind the French defence, but her finishing lacked the quality the build-up showed as she pulled her shot just wide of the target. To be fair the Les Bleus keeper, Berangere Sapowicz, did well to pressurise Oparanozie into the mistake.

The last effort of the opening half saw France with another long range effort in the 44th minute. Louisa Necib fired a powerful shot goalwards from 25-yards, but Dede produced another good acrobatic save, again diving to her left to make a fingertip save.

The second half saw France make an immediate change with Eugenie Le Sommer replacing Sandrine Soubeyrand, and it paid dividends as the Les Bleus found the opening goal in the 56th minute.

France’s inform striker, Marie-Laure Delie, was the woman to find the back of the net as she concluded a beautiful passing move that saw her with the ball at her feet, in space, six yards out from goal. Consequently, Delie made no mistake firing her side in front, 1-0.

Following the goal Nigeria tried to fight their way back into the match and applied sustained periods of pressure on the French goal, but they weren’t really able to create any clear-cut chances.

The game finished 1-0 in favour of France and Nigeria will be upset they were unable to get anything from the their first 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup game.

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