Goalkeeper Chiamaka Nnadozie\u2019s 50th-minute save denied Canada\u2019s Christine Sinclair, a place in history in a scoreless draw at the 2023 FIFA Women\u2019s World Cup.<\/p>\n
The result meant Nigeria and Canada shared the spoils in their tight Group B opener in Melbourne, with the two captains involved in the game\u2019s pivotal moment.<\/p>\n
After a goalless opening half, Canada was awarded a penalty shortly after the break.<\/p>\n
Their captain, Sinclair, stepped up to the spot but was thwarted by a superb stop low to her left by the Super Falcons skipper Nnadozie.<\/p>\n
A tight first half saw Canada shade possession but the best of the chances fell Nigeria\u2019s way.<\/p>\n
Ifeoma Onumonu had an effort parried wide by Kailen Sheridan midway through the half.<\/p>\n
This was followed by a vital intervention from Vanessa Gilles, which kept Asisat Oshoala\u2019s goal-bound effort out after a missed clearance from Sheridan.<\/p>\n
Five minutes after the restart,\u00a0 came the game\u2019s key moment with Canada awarded a penalty as Sinclair was brought down by Francisca Ordega.<\/p>\n
But the 40-year-old missed the chance to become the tournament\u2019s oldest scorer as Nnadozie made a fine save low to her left.<\/p>\n
NAN also reports that four of the last six penalties awarded at the FIFA Women\u2019s World Cup have been missed, with Sinclair\u2019s effort the latest on that list.<\/p>\n
Both nations went in search of a winner, with Nigeria\u2019s Michelle Alozie having a shot well blocked with a quarter of an hour remaining.<\/p>\n
Canada substitutes Evelyne Viens and then Cloe Lacasse also had late efforts cleared.<\/p>\n
The Super Falcons will be without midfielder Deborah Abiodun for their next match though.<\/p>\n
This was after she was shown a red card late in second-half stoppage time, as Nigeria saw out their first scoreless draw in 27 Women\u2019s World Cup matches.<\/p>\n
The Super Falcons will\u00a0 take on tournament\u2019s co-hosts Australia on July 27 after defeating Republic of Ireland 1-0 on Thursday in their opening fixture.<\/p>\n
They will then round off their group stage matches against Republic of Ireland on July 31.<\/p>\n
NAN<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Goalkeeper Chiamaka Nnadozie\u2019s 50th-minute save denied Canada\u2019s Christine Sinclair, a place in history in a scoreless draw at the 2023 FIFA Women\u2019s World Cup. The result meant Nigeria and Canada shared the spoils in their tight Group B opener in Melbourne, with the two captains involved in the game\u2019s pivotal moment. After a goalless opening […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":779,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=778"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":780,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778\/revisions\/780"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}