THE Super Falcons suffered their second consecutive 1-0 defeat at the Paris 2024 Olympics tonight, going down to world champions Spain in Nantes.
Meanwhile, Africa’s other representatives in the women’s football event, Zambia, lost 6-5 to Australia after taking a 4-2 lead into half-time.
Former Ballon d’Or winner Alexia Putellas scored Spain’s only goal in the 85th minute against the Super Falcons, causing more heartache for the nine-time African champions after Thursday’s defeat to Brazil.
Like in the loss to Brazil in Bordeaux, the Super Falcons were not adventurous but had two glorious opportunities to score, and both were fluffed.
The first one fell to captain Rasheedat Ajibade in the first half as she was cleverly set up by the recalled Asisat Oshoala, but the Atletico Madrid forward somehow lost her footing when she was one-on-one with the goalkeeper.
The second big chance fell to substitute Chinwendu Ihezuo in the dying stages, but she fell as she was making an attempt to shoot and the ball was gathered by the Spain goalkeeper.
With the defeat, the Super Falcons are on the verge of elimination as they are bottom of Group C with zero points.
They face Japan on Wednesday needing to win and hoping to squeeze through as one of the best third-place finishers.
In Nice, Zambia were 4-2 up at half-time, with Barbra Banda bagging a hat-trick but they conceded four goals in the second half, including a stoppage-time winner by Michelle Heyman to suffer a heartbreaking defeat.
Zambia are also bottom of their group like Nigeria, and play their final group game on Wednesday against Germany.
