Nigeria and Morocco have booked their places into the third round of the 2022 India FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup African qualifiers.
The Nigerians earned their spot after walloping Democratic Republic of Congo 5-0 in the second leg of the second round to go through 8-0 on aggregate, while Morocco had the better of Benin with a 2-0 victory in the reverse fixture following a 1-1 draw in the first leg, to progress 3-1 on aggregate.
Nigeria will now face Egypt in the next round, while Morocco have a date with Niger.
The Egyptians qualified following the withdrawal of Guinea Bissau, and Niger also benefited after Sao Tome e’ Principe pulled out of the competition.
Victory was never in doubt for the Flamingoes as they won the first leg 3-0 in Kinshasa.
Playing the second leg at home in Benin City at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium, the West Africans opened the scoring in the fifth minute through Opeyemi Ajakaye before she extended the lead nine minutes later.
At half time they led 3-0 courtesy of Oluwatunmininu Adeshina goal, and the match was over as a contest when second half substitute Doosur Atume hit the back of the net in the 60th minute for a 4-0 lead.
Taiwo Afolabi put the final nail on the coffin with goal number five two minutes from time for a comfortable 8-0 aggregate victory.
The Morocco vs Benin clash ended in a 1-all stalemate in the first leg in Porto Novo and there was everything to play for in the reverse fixture.
But the North Africans put on a wonderful display to emerge 2-0 winners in the second leg.
They took the lead just 16 minutes into the match with a goal from Mina El Hamzoaoui and Yasmine Zouhir put the matter beyond reach in the 36th minute. Morocco held on for a 3-1 aggregate victory to advance to the next round.
The teams that will contest the third round are South Africa vs the winner between Uganda and Ethiopia; Cameroon vs Zambia; Burundi vs the winner between Tanzania and Botswana; Egypt vs Nigeria; and Niger vs Morocco.
The final two spots in the penultimate phase of the qualifiers will be taken by the winners between Liberia and Guinea, as well as the victors between Senegal and Ghana.
By Matlhomola Morake
