Falconets fall to Mexico 0-1 in final warm-up ahead of FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup

Nigeria’s under-20 women’s football team, the Falconets, suffered a narrow 0-1 defeat to Mexico in a friendly match on Monday in Bogota, Colombia.

The match, held at the Club Banco de la República, was the final preparation game for the Falconets before the FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup.

Mexico secured the victory with a 15th-minute volley by Alejandra Lomelí. Despite the loss, the Falconets had earlier secured a 2-1 win against Australia on Friday, boosting their confidence ahead of the tournament.

Falconets’ head coach, Christopher Danjuma, expressed that the match was their final warm-up before the World Cup, noting that the team is now focused on the upcoming competition.

“The friendly matches were crucial for the Falconets as they have helped the team fine-tune their strategies and assess their readiness for the tournament.

“We won five of our six qualifying matches with healthy scorelines and have added victory over the Australians, even though we lost to the Mexico team.

“That the team played two international friendly matches and won one and lost one shows the girls are ready and we will work more on our lapses before the competition,” he said.

Danjuma however acknowledged that the FIFA World Cup finals would not be easy.

“ The fact that we are up against the Korea Republic and three-time winners Germany in our first two matches means we need to be at our best physically, mentally, and psychologically.

“Physically and mentally, I believe we are in shape. Psychologically, we are good also.

“The team left Nigeria for Colombia for two weeks so that we can play quality friendly matches in readiness and we have done that,” he said.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that Nigeria is with Germany, Venezuela, and the Korea Republic in Group D of the tournament scheduled for Saturday to Sept. 22.

Nigeria will start its campaign against the Korea Republic on Sept. 2 before taking on Germany two days later on Sept. 4 and Venezuela on Sept. 7.

Spain are the competition’s defending champions after their success at Costa Rica in 2022.

(NAN)