By Eniola Olatunji reporting for Patmos Media Line
…North Korea Leads Group E with 6 points.
FALCONS OF Nigeria on Thursday night at the Sosnowiec stadium in Poland resisted the volatile Chinese U20 girls with a surprise goalless draw before an excited 11,600 fans in a match handled by Ref C. Beretti of Brazil in group F.
Falconets who sports pundits thought China will take to the cleaners upgraded and contested move to move and refused to take a bow before the Chinese. Stats show that the Chinese advantages were marginal and Nigeria still has problems converting set pieces even with the 7-2 corner kicks advantage over China showing where the pressure is.
Janet Akokoromowei the talisman of Nigeria who had visa hitches but trained with the Falconets on Tuesday evening led the attack but the Chinese Defence warded them off.
We reported in a preview that on current form, China outclasses Nigeria clearly with 60-21% ball possessions having 44-5 shots at goal of which 15-3 are on target playing deep with 32-0 shots within the box and trying 12-0 from outside the box meaning that if they exert same pressure on the Falconets the Nigerians will collapse like a pack of cards and concede much goals.
This is further proved with 21-1 corner kicks which if there’s a rebound may cause great havoc for Nigeria. All these did not work against Nigeria today.
China had spanked New Caledonia 5-0 in the first group game when Spain piped Nigeria 2-0 that makes Nigeria to still be in the 3rd place with one point when Spain tops the group with 6 points qualifying for the knockout stages after drilling New Caledonia 11-0 earlier today. China is 2nd with 4 points and New Caledonia is 4th and out with no point and -16 goals deficit.
China and Nigeria met twice and China won a game drawing the second and scoring 4 of the 5 goals scored. On 20th August 2016 in group B China slammed Nigeria 3-0 at the world cup and on 13th August 2018 they played 1-1 in group D.
Columbia and Portugal also played goalless in group E tweeting the group table after North Korea drilled Costa Rica 4-0. North Korea tops the group with 6 points and 6 goals difference, Columbia is 2nd with 4 points and 2 goals difference, Portugal is 3rd with a point and -2 goals difference while Costa Rica has no point and still has -6 goals deficit.
Tomorrow Friday, the last group games begin with group B at 2.00pm when England will take on Brazil and Tanzania will tackle Canada in a simultaneous encounter.
At 5.00pm group A will feature hosts Poland versus Benin Republic and Argentina versus Mexico also simultaneously.
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