New Zealand's Young Ferns won't be repeating the exploits of their third-place-getting 2018 predecessors at the 2022 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup Finals, after copping a 4-0 hiding from Nigeria at the Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Goa on October 14. With their next opponents, Germany, thrashing Chile 6-0 in the other group encounter, it leaves Leon Birnie's team bottom of the group and guaranteed to be heading home after taking on the European champions in three days' time. On this showing, they may need to field all twenty players in the squad against the Germans in an effort to keep the scoreline respectable, because the Young Ferns were very much second-best against a Nigerian team which dominated from the outset, with Taiwo Afolabi's twenty-five yard drive narrowly flying past Aimee Feinberg-Danieli's right-hand post just 67 seconds into the contest. "The Flamingos" threatened again in the sixth minute, Blessing Emmanuel's header forward inviting the outstanding Opeyemi Ajakaye to outpace Marie Green, only to be thwarted by the leg of Feinberg-Danieli as the goalkeeper dashed out to the edge of the penalty area in response to the danger. The Young Ferns responded four minutes later via Milly Clegg, the one occasion in the match in which she had a chance to threaten a goal. She evaded a challenge twenty-five yards out from goal and scooted through the inside left channel, only for Shakirat Oyinlola to dash across and snuff out the threat posed by New Zealand's principle attacking threat. Normal service, as far as Nigeria was concerned, soon resumed, Afolabi dashing down the right before looking to pick out Ajakaye, only for Green to intervene. But she was powerless to prevent the unmarked Amina Bello from heading home Tumininu Adeshina's sixteenth minute cross, the ball bouncing in front of Feinberg-Danieli and completely deceiving her en route to the back of the net. The goalkeeper recovered some confidence five minutes later when keeping out a thirty-yarder from the goalscorer, but in the 23rd minute, an Adeshina corner wasn't cleared, inviting Ajakaye to make like a fox in a henhouse, which caused all sorts of issues in New Zealand's goalmouth. Feinberg-Danieli and Suya Haering - things would likely have been a lot worse without her contribution to the match - got in each other's way in their desperation to clear the danger on this occasion, with the goalkeeper forced to scramble the ball round the post as Ajakaye looked to turn it home. The resulting corner picked out Bello near the penalty spot, from where she steered a lovely cushioned volley through the crowded goalmouth and inches past Feinberg-Danieli's left-hand post, much to the relief of the Young Ferns, who relied on their goalkeeper to keep the Nigerians at bay twice more before the half-hour. Ajakaye was the player Feinberg-Danieli denied on both occasions, saving at her feet after parrying a shot arising from an attack which featured Afolabi, Bello and Emmanuel, who was also involved in the later opportunity. Nigeria deservedly doubled their lead in the 34th minute. Feinberg-Danieli pawed Adeshina's inswinging corner out from beneath her crossbar, prompting another corner, this time taken short. Miracle Usani was the recipient of this set-piece, and her teasing cross-shot saw Young Ferns captain Manaia Elliott rise in an attempt to meet it, only to unwittingly guide the ball over the head of Feinberg-Danieli immediately behind her - 2-0. Still they weren't satisfied, Bello's brilliant footwork flummoxing Ella McMillan before she threaded the ball through to Ajakaye. She evaded a challenge

before pulling the ball back into the stride of Bello, who had continued her run. Her finish failed to match the quality of the build-up. Three minutes before half-time, Ajakaye picked out Bisola Mosaku in acres of space on the left. But she failed to exploit it, going for the fancy finish but failing to hit the target, a feat she repeated seconds later, hitting the crossbar with the goal gaping after Feinberg-Danieli and Haering again collided in their desperation to prevent Ajakaye from adding a third goal before the interval. She was denied another opportunity to do so on the stroke of half-time by Feinberg-Danieli, who dashed out of her goal to prevent Ajakaye from latching onto Afolabi's through ball, bringing to an end a half of football in which New Zealand failed to register a single shot at goal - Nigeria, by comparison, pulled the trigger fifteen times. Within a minute of the resumption, they'd increased that tally, Usani's thirty yard free-kick being grabbed by Feinberg-Danieli, who launched a counter-attack in which Ruby Nathan and Olivia Ingham featured before Kiara Bercelli miskicked when presented with the chance to fire the Kiwis' first shot in anger in the contest. It wasn't that the Young Ferns had been on all-out defence to this point. They had threatened, primarily through the long throw-ins of Elliott, but there was no end product - Nathan, the obvious target to receive such deliveries due to her height, barely got a sniff of the ball on these occasions. Hers was a performance best forgotten, a statement which applies to a few of her black-clad team-mates, with McMillan and midfield duo Helena Errington and Charlotte Mortlock also producing personal performances they won't look back on too fondly in years to come. More fancy footwork from Bello bewildered Errington in the 49th minute, the first goalscorer then surging forward before inviting the overlapping figure of Adeshina to unleash a shot on the run. Feinberg-Danieli blocked this well, then looked on with relief as Ajakaye twice threatened to set up team-mates, only to find they were too far behind her so not in a position to alter the scoreline. So the striker took matters into her own hands in the 57th minute, her snapshot sizzling over the bar after the Young Ferns' goalkeeper had punched a Usani cross to seeming safety. Adeshina rattled the side-netting on the hour before Feinberg-Danieli pulled off a fabulous save to prevent Afolabi from heading home Adeshina's corner in the 61st minute. The 'keeper then denied the corner-taker seconds later, before racing out of goal to clear the danger as substitute Edidiong Etim hurtled through in pursuit of a hefty clearance. The Young Ferns finally fired a shot in anger in the 65th minute, Errington's volley deflected to safety after Nigeria had failed to deal with an Elliott throw-in. Normal service soon resumed, however, with Ajakaye prominent in numerous Nigerian raids, outpacing all-comers in the 72nd minute, only to be denied by Feinberg-Danieli. She was beaten all ends up fifteen minutes from time by a fabulous dipping drive from Afolabi, whose twenty-five yarder found the top right-hand corner of the net. And from that same distance in stoppage time, Etim wrapped up the scoring after accelerating past Green to latch onto Adeshina's pass before cutting inside to fire home beyond the diving figure of Feinberg-Danieli, whose efforts in a well-beaten side kept the score down. Nigeria:     Omilana; Usani, Oyinlola, Folorunsho, Adeshina; Dah-Zossu (Etim, 64), Mosaku (Edafe, 87), Emmanuel, Afolabi; Bello, Ajayake Young Ferns:     Feinberg-Danieli; Elliott, Green, McMillan (Smith, 63), Haering; Nathan (Cook, 63), Mortlock (Page, 77), Errington, Bercelli (Colpi, 63); Ingham, Clegg (Trewhitt, 81) Referee:     Pansa Chaisanit (Thailand)