Gauvin scores hat-trick as France thrash African champions Nigeria 8-0 in international friendly
- African women champions Nigeria suffered a 8-0 defeat to France in a friendly encounter on Friday, April 6, at the MM Arena
- This will be their first match since they won their 10th AWCON title in Cameroon in 2016 after Desire Oparanozie's lone goal lifted them above the hosts in the final
- The defeat also means that this is the third time the Super Falcons have lost 8-0 in their history after 1995 to Norway and 2010 to Germany
Nigeria’s Super Falcons suffered their first defeat under coach Thomas Dennerby on Friday night following their 8-0 demolition by the French Women national team at the MM Arena in Le Mans on Friday, April 6.
Valerie Gauvin’s hatrick and a goal each from Eugenie Le Sommer, Gaetane Thiney, Aminata Diallo, and Marie-Charlotte Leger gave them cruise control over the African champions.
While an own goal from Faith Ikidi completed the 8-0 rout which ensured the Swedish born tactician was given a baptism of fire on his first real game as the head coach of the team.
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Meanwhile, this will be the first meeting for the Super Falcons after winning their tenth African Women’s Championship title in Cameroon two years back – beating the hosts 1-0 to clinch their tenth AWCON title.
However, this defeat has also shown the new coach that the task ahead of him is enormous as they will be preparing to defend their AWCON title later this year, as well as prepare for the 2019 Women’s World Cup staging in France in the summer of 2019.
This will be the third time the Nigeria senior women’s national team will be losing at that scandalous margin (8-0) after the 1995 set were beaten by Norway in that year’s World Cup.
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And in 2010, the team was also pummeled by the same goal margin by the German women national team in an international friendly match in 2010.
The French team were arguable the best on the night as they boast of 14 shots on target and eight of them passed beyond Nnadozie Chiamaka.
Nigeria were able to hold their peace in the game until the 20th minute when the first goal came through, and after then they couldn’t stop the hosts from scoring until the 90th minute.
Des Blues also spanked Ghana by the same scoreline last October in an international friendly encounter to keep their quest of hosting and winning the World Cup in 2019 alive.
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Source: Naija.ng