Sports minister, Barrister Solomon Dalung is still relishing the heroic 1-1 draw achieved by the country’s youth female national team, Falconets against China on Monday, and says he never doubted the squad’s ability to reach the quarterfinals at the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup in France.
Although it took a 95th minute scrambled ball across the line, which FIFA consequently adjudged as an own goal, for Nigeria to pull level and pick the ticket to play against Spain on Thursday, Dalung also heaped praises on the Falconets for giving a lot of hard work in the game.
The minister also congratulated President Muhammadu Buhari and all Nigerians on the Falconets’ qualification, which he said made him very excited.
Dalung further pointed out that, having watched the Falconets during their preparation for the tournament and in their second group match against Haiti, he had no doubt that the team would get the needed result to scale the hurdle.
“Let me once again congratulate you on behalf of His Excellency President Muhammadu Buhari and the good people of Nigeria.
“It was a hard fought qualification and you worked so hard to earn this ticket. I had no doubt in my mind that you were going to scale through.
“I am so excited and I know that millions of Nigerians are also happy with the result,” the sports minister declared.
