The Super Falcons of Nigeria and the female football team of Brazil met for the first time since their opening fixture of the 2018 Beijing Olympics in a much-anticipated encounter and a group-stage opener for both teams. Brazil and Nigeria are familiar foes on the football scene but the two countries have only met twice at the senior national team level.

The first one was the 1999 women’s World Cup in the USA, which ended in one of the most iconic games of the competition, a 4-3 extra-time win for the Brazilians, while the second and last meeting until now was at the Olympics in Beijing 2008 which also ended in favour of Brazil.

While Brazilians were the favorite for Thursday’s game in Bordeaux, it was evidence that it wasn’t going to be the rollover from the West Africans. Three record winners of the women’s Africa Cup of Nations had one of their best-ever FIFA World Cup performances in Australia and New Zealand last year, where they were knocked out in the round of 16 on penalties by England.

They showed that the improvement was not a fluke, starting well against Brazil and almost scoring with a tapping early in the first half only to be denied by the Brazilian goalkeeper Lorena. Moments later, a long-range strike from midfielder Christy Ucheibe was pushed away to safety by Lorena.

Nigeria’s goalkeeper, Chiamaka Nnadozie was not idle either and she made saves but there was nothing she could do when Brazilian legend Marta fed Gabi Nunes at the edge of the box with the Levante forward striking hard and finding the back of the net of the crossbar 8 minutes before half time. 

Neither could add to the tally, and Brazil took all three points, which might prove crucial with games against Japan and Spain waiting while Nigeria faces Spain on Sunday and Japan in their final group game.