Nigeria 1-0 Uzbekistan: Ayinde helps superhawks silence Turans

The Superhawks continued their impressive form in the Turkish Women’s Cup with a narrow win against the Central Asians

Nigeria continued its good start in the Turkish Women’s Cup 2021 with a 1-0 win over Uzbekistan on Saturday in Antalya.

The Superhawks entered the competition after Thursday’s 1-0 win against CSKA Moscow thanks to Chinwendu Ihezuo’s goal against Francisca Ordega’s assistant at the Emir Sports Complex.

On Saturday, new coach Randy Waldrum continued to trust the same squad that put pressure on the Russian champions as the West Africans picked up where they left off against the Central Asians.

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The Superhawks began the draw against Bakhrom Norsafarov when Ihezuo almost scored Toni Payne’s first goal after just 10 minutes.

Half an hour later, Asisat Oshoala almost broke the impasse when she caught the ball on the edge of the field, but unfortunately slipped into the box to miss the opportunity.

After the restart, the Nigerian side made a good return to the game when Oshoala Halimatu gave Ayinde a perfect cross to open the lead for the hosts two minutes into the second half.

Watch: Halimat Ayinde’s superb finish against Uzbekistan. #SoarSuperFalcons # Team9jaStrong #TurkishWomensCup pic.twitter.com/t7LvawDqRm

– NGSuper_Falcons (@NGSuper_Falcons) February 20, 2021

In the closing stages, Rita Chikwelu and Francisca Ordega teamed up well before bonding with Oshoala but the latter failed to end their goal drought in six games for club and country.

The win puts Nigeria to the brink of the title and brings them to the top of the group standings with six points from two games.

They will now seek to end their campaign at a climax when they face the known African enemies of Equatorial Guinea on February 23.

In the group’s other result, CSKA Moscow celebrated their first win of the competition after beating Equatorial Guinea 2-0.

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