Nigeria\u2019s Super Falcons started their 2023 FIFA Women\u2019s World Cup campaign in Australia and New Zealand with a goalless draw against Olympic champions, Canada.<\/p>\n
Goalkeeper, Chiamaka Nnadozie turned the heroine of the match played in Brisbane after saving Christine Sinclair\u2019s penalty early in the second half.<\/span><\/p>\n The Falcons also had midfielder, Deborah Abiodun sent off late on in the game for a dangerous foul.<\/span><\/p>\n In the 23rd minute, the Nigerian ladies went close with the opener despite Canada\u2019s early dominance when Ifeoma Onumonu had her well-taken shot parried away by goalkeeper, Kailen Sheridan.<\/span><\/p>\n Five minutes later, Canada\u2019s Jordyn Huitema failed to direct her header from a cross towards goal.<\/span><\/p>\n Both teams finished the first half creating no dangerous opportunity.<\/span><\/p>\n The second half began on a disappointing note for the Falcons when the referee awarded a penalty for Canada after Francisca Ordega brought down Christine Sinclair in the box.<\/span><\/p>\n But Nnadozie stepped up to save the resulting penalty by Sinclair.<\/span><\/p>\n The Canadians went close again seven minutes later but Adriana Leon\u2019s clever free-kick missed the target.<\/span><\/p>\n They continued to surge forward and almost scored but Nnadozie stopped a left-foot strike.<\/span><\/p>\n Substitute Uchenna Kanu connected with a cross from Onumonu which the keeper saved from close range but the flag went off for offside.<\/span><\/p>\n With five minutes left, Tosin Demehin made a timely block to deny a goal-bound shot.<\/span><\/p>\n In the 98th minute, Abiodun was shown a straight card after consultation with VAR for a bad tackle on Ashley Lawrence.<\/span><\/p>\n The result means after three meetings, the Super Falcons are still unbeaten against Canada at the women\u2019s World Cup (one win and two draws).<\/span><\/p>\n Up next for the Falcons are hosts Australia on Thursday,\u00a0July\u00a027.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Nigeria\u2019s Super Falcons started their 2023 FIFA Women\u2019s World Cup campaign in Australia and New Zealand with a goalless draw against Olympic champions, Canada.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14406,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7296,360,1920,7295],"class_list":["post-14403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-2023-fifa-womens-world-cup","tag-canada","tag-super-falcons","tag-world-cup-campaign"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14403"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14403"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14403\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14405,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14403\/revisions\/14405"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}