Flourish Sabastine was the last-gasp heroine as Nigeria sunk Korea Republic in their FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup opener.
Korea Republic had the game’s first big chance. Cho Hyeyoung produced an excellent, inviting cross from the left. Park Soojeong threw herself towards the ball but, from point-blank range, was just inches away from making a connection.
Back came Nigeria. Lucky Nkpa, just 16, charged through the midfield, played a neat one-two with Rofiat Imuran, and shot just over.
Cho fired wide after some crowd-pleasing trickery, before Kim Shinji rattled the crossbar just before the half-time whistle.
Nigeria had the better of the second period. Imuran fired a free-kick narrowly wide shortly after the restart, while Chiamaka Okwuchukwu danced her way past two opponents and brought a block out of Woo Seobin. They finally made the breakthrough late on when Sabastine’s attempted cross deceived Seobin and went in.
The teams will return to action in Bogota on Wednesday, with Nigeria meeting Germany and Korea Republic facing Venezuela.
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