Sports

Super Falcons Trash Equatorial Guinea 9-0 to Win Antalya Tourney

Published

5 years ago

February 23, 2021

Eric

Barcelona forward, Asisat Oshoala, scored four goals as the Super Falcons thrashed Equatorial Guinea 9-0 to emerge champions of the Festival Women’s Cup 2021 Antalya on Tuesday.

The competition had the Falcons, Equatorial Guinea, Uzbekistan and CSKA Moscow Ladies in attendance.

Falcons finished as champions with maximum nine points from three matches, scoring 11 goals and conceding none.
Glory Ogbonna opened the scoring for the nine-time African champions in the ninth minute, before captain Oshoala scored two goals from the spot in the 12th and 13th minutes, and then added a third in the 26th minute.

Uchenna Kalu made it 5-0 in the 36th minute, while Eibar forward Charity Adule scored the sixth goal with a fine header three minutes later.
The hardworking Toni Payne’s 43rd minute thunderous strike, after shielding off two of her opponents, ensured that the Falcons took a seven-goal advantage into the half time break.
Falcons coach Randy Waldrum brought on Gift Monday, Ramat Abdulkareem, Esther Sunday and Maryam Ibrahim for Chiwendu Ihezuo, Chidinma Okeke, Payne and Kalu respectively, ensuring all the 23 players for the tournament had a taste of action.

The Nigerians, however, took their foot off the pedal in the second half, but still scored two goals to confine Equatorial Guinea, two-time African champions to a humiliating defeat.

Substitute Gift, who plays for Robo FC in the domestic league, scored the eight goal in the 69th minute, before Oshoala grabbed her fourth of the game in the 85th minute to cap an emphatic win for the African champions.
Two minutes later Equatoguinean defender Gina was given the marching orders after a harsh tackle on the rampaging Ramat Abdulkareem on the left flank.

With the result, the Falcons became the first African team to win the tournament, following three straight wins.
Waldrum’s side defeated CSKA Moscow Ladies 1-0 in their opening game of the tournament before beating Uzbekistan by the same margin in their second encounter.

Oshoala attributed the performance to the hard work of the players.
“As a team I’m really happy and also with the attitude the girls put up in the tournament because we came all out to make sure we had fun.

“Also, we worked very hard. We just want to make sure that we give our best and keep getting good results and goals as much as we can,” Oshoala told NFF Media.

Uzbekistan and CSKA Moscow will play the final game of the group later today to determine who finishes runners-up to the Falcons.

Uzbekistan and CSKA both have three points but the Uzbeks are have a superior goal difference of +4.
Equatorial finished the competition without a point, after losing all three matches.

Sports

Luka Modric’s World Cup Story Ends, Cristiano Ronaldo Gets Lifeline

Published

1 day ago

July 3, 2026

Eric

By Eric Elezuo

It was an emotional encounter as two of world’s best footballers; Luca Modric and Cristiano Ronaldo squared against each other in a bid to lay their hands on the coveted World Cup trophy when Portugal met Croatia in the round of 32. But after about 97minutes of play time, the World Cup story of Modric came to am abrupt end while Ronaldo gets a lifeline, proceeding to the Round of 16.

Both Ronaldo and Modric are not likely to feature in another World Cup tournament.

Portugal battled into the last 16 of the World Cup with a drama-filled 2-1 victory over Croatia on Thursday to set up a titanic showdown with European champions Spain.

In another nerve-shredding World Cup classic, Goncalo Ramos headed Portugal into the lead in the fourth minute of stoppage time before Croatia saw a last-gasp equaliser agonisingly ruled out for offside in Toronto.

Portugal’s 41-year-old superstar captain Cristiano Ronaldo had helped haul his team back into the contest, burying a 68th-minute penalty to cancel out Croatia’s 53rd-minute opener from Ivan Perisic.

Ronaldo later joined frenzied celebrations after Ramos glanced home a sensational header deep into injury time to give Portugal the lead.

But Ronaldo and his Portugal team-mates were left stunned when Josko Gvardiol prodded home an apparent equaliser in stoppage time.

Yet there was one final twist when the goal was chalked off for offside after a lengthy VAR review to the disbelief of Croatia’s players and their large contingent of fans at Toronto’s BMO Field.

After the final whistle, an emotional Ronaldo held up and pulled on a Portugal shirt bearing the number 21, a tribute to late team-mate Diogo Jota, the Liverpool star who tragically died in a car crash almost a year to the day from Thursday’s win, on July 3 last year.

“We knew it before the game. It was a so special moment. We speak today, our group, about that, the coincidence of life, it’s unbelievable,” Ronaldo said afterwards of the tribute to Jota.

“I was amazed because the situation of today. It means a lot to us, not only because we won the game, but the also the way we won the game. It was a difficult game, we knew it.”

The result ensures that Ronaldo’s incredible World Cup career will be extended for at least one more match when the Portuguese face Iberian rivals Spain in the last 16 in Dallas on Monday.

Ronaldo’s second-half penalty made him the oldest man to score in a World Cup knockout match.

Spain romp past Austria

Spain had advanced to that meeting with a scintillating 3-0 win over Austria in Los Angeles earlier Friday that confirmed their status as one of the favourites for the title.

Two goals from Mikel Oyarzabal and a Pedro Porro header sealed victory for the Spaniards, who produced their most complete performance of the tournament to advance to the next round.

Spain opened their World Cup campaign with a faltering 0-0 draw against Cape Verde, but have subsequently built momentum with each match.

AFP

Sports

Ronaldo Celebrates Saudi Pro League Win with Al-Nassr

Published

1 month ago

May 22, 2026

Eric

Al Nassr captain, Cristiano Ronaldo, has finally won the Saudi Pro League title.

They were confirmed champions on Thursday, thanks to a 4-2 drubbing of relegation battlers, Damac.

The title race had gone down to the final day after Al-Nassr dramatically dropped points against Al-Hilal the previous week.

Jorge Jesus’ side knew there could be no mistakes against a Damac side fighting for survival at the other end of the table.

Ronaldo was on the scoresheet, as his brace helped Al Nassr secure the title ahead of rivals Al Hilal.

Sports

FIFA Lists Six Females Among 52 Referees for 2026 World Cup

Published

3 months ago

April 10, 2026

Eric

FIFA on Thursday unveiled its list of match officials for the June 11-July 19 World Cup, including 52 referees, six of whom are women.

Football’s governing body will also take 88 assistant referees and 30 video match officials, who hail from all six confederations and 50 member associations.

“The selected match officials are the very best in the world,” said Pierluigi Collina, FIFA’s chief refereeing officer.

“They were part of a wider pool of officials that was identified and monitored over the past three years. They have attended seminars and officiated at FIFA tournaments.

“In addition, their performances in domestic and international matches were regularly assessed.”

The World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico will be the biggest in history, with a 48-team line-up and 104 matches to be played.

There are 41 more match officials than at Qatar four years ago, where 32 teams played 64 matches.

“The fact that six women match officials have been selected continues a trend that was started four years ago in Qatar as we aim to further develop women’s refereeing,” Collina said, with six women having already refereed in 2022.

AFP