Much to the relief of millions of Nigerians back home, Nigeria beat tournament favourites USA 4-3 on penalties after full-time ended 1-1, at the ongoing U-17 Women’s World Cup in India, with Cross River born Flamingos defender Miracle Usani, scoring one of the penalties.
Recalling her experience during the quarter-final shootout against USA, Usani maintained she slowly slumped to the pitch in tears after she saw her penalty saved by Valentina Amaral, but luckily got a second chance after VAR adjudged Amaral to have stepped off her line before making the save, which meant Usani had to a second chance to retake the penalty, one she converted from the spot as Nigeria advanced to the semi-finals of the competition for the first time since inception in 2008.
“The game led me up to that moment. It ended up going to penalties and I needed to step up and take responsibility,” Usani told FIFA.com. “I was so relieved after the game. I feel much better now, I’m so happy that I was given a second chance. I really wanted to score the second, so I’m happy.”
“It was just about winning the game. That’s exactly what we had to do, and that was the key to our victory.”
The dead-ball specialist, insisted that her team can defeat any team after eliminating the Americans and wants Nigerians to get behind the team. This Wednesday’s semi-final game against Colombia in the semi-final of the competition, leaves them 90 minutes away from making a historic final with hopes of winning this female age grade tournament for the first time.
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