In the opening fixture of Group D, Sweden – one of the favourites for the tournament – faced African champions Nigeria in Winnipeg.
Sweden’s qualifying campaign saw them win all ten of their games, only conceding one goal in the process. But in their first fixture of the tournament their defence was penetrated three times as their young Nigerian opponents possessed a pacey and dangerous attacking front line in Desire Oparanozie and Liverpool Ladies’ Asisat Oshoala.
Ranked fifth in the world, Sweden were widely tipped by many to win the game, but it was their opponents who enjoyed the majority of possession in the opening 20 minutes. The ‘Super Falcons’ settled well and refused to be intimidated by the reputation of their European counterparts.
With just five minutes on the clock Nigeria were awarded a free-kick on the edge of the area which fired toward goal by Ngozi Ebere but held well by Chelsea’s Hedvig Lindahl in the Sweden goal. Two minutes later came the first of many attempts from Oshoala, who ran with the ball down the right from deep within her own half, but as she bore down on goal Lindahl had read the danger and slid out to claim at her feet.
Nigeria continued to press, however it wasn’t all one-way traffic, as Sweden possessed pace of their own, and were able to counter-attack. As a result, the deadlock was broken by the Scandinavians on twenty minutes when a superb corner from 38-year-old veteran Therese Sjogran came off the chest of Nigeria forward Oparanozie into her own net.
Less than five minutes later after another pacey run down the right, Oshoala found herself with a fantastic chance to level the score. Having beaten her marker, the 20 year-old shot across goal but dragged it agonisingly wide of the left post.
Sweden then doubled their advantage on the half-hour mark after another pin-point corner from the left by Sjogran caused chaos in the box, forcing Nigeria’s Ebere in to a goal-line clearance. But as the ball was played back in Nilla Fischer managed to make contact with it at the left post steering it past Precious Dede to make it 2-0 Sweden.
Fischer was then called into action at the other end on the stroke of half-time, as she made a crucial challenge in the six-yard box to deny Oparanozie who was one-on-one with Lindahl after being set-up by Oshoala with a lovely through-ball.
Although trailing 2-0 at half-time, Nigeria refused to give up and within five minutes of the re-start had pulled a goal back. An impressive passing move from the Africans culminated in Oparanozie feeding in Ngozi Okobi from the right, who then fired a shot past the helpless Lindahl, to halve the deficit. And within three minutes they had pulled level, this time through the impressive Oshoala who was rewarded for her continued efforts with a superb individual goal, having run the length of the pitch before firing emphatically in to the back of the net.
The next goal came courtesy of a fluid passing move from the Swedes which split the Nigerian defence. The ball was cut-back from the by-line and subsequently converted off the thigh of Linda Sembrant who had only been on the pitch a matter of minutes.
But the spirits of the plucky Nigerians were still not hampered as they continued to look for an equaliser once more. Oparanozie again fed in Okobi who looked certain to score one-on-one past Lindahl, until a crucial interception from Swedish defender Emma Berglund denied her. And five minutes later they tried again as Oparanozie unleashed a fierce strike from distance which forced Lindahl into a save at full stretch.
Finally, with just three minutes of normal time left to play, the Nigerians rounded off an end-to-end game with a deserved goal to share the spoils. A pass of excellent precision from Okobi found Francisca Ordega who poked the ball through the legs of the onrushing Lindahl salvaging a well-deserved point for the Africans who have left themselves with an excellent chance of reaching the knockouts.
