FIFA U20 Women's World Cup: Nigeria earn ticket to quarterfinal

The Nigeria U-20 women's team, the Falconets, have progressed to the quarterfinals of the ongoing FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup in France.

The Nigerian girls played out a 1-1 draw with China in their last group match on Monday, ensuring they remained in the tournament.

After a poor start that saw them lose their first match 1-0 to Germany, the Nigerian girls got back in contention with a 1-0 victory over Haiti before the draw to China.

The Nigerian girls had to dig deep to secure the result against the Chinese who needed a win and had scored in the 41st minute to improve their chances of making it through.

But the Nigerians came out strong in search of an equalizer and were rewarded late in the match when Chinese right back Jiaxing Dou turned the ball into her own net as a result of the relentless pressure by the Nigerian girls.

Coach of the team Christopher Danjuma praised his players for the tenacity and doggedness they displayed in the match.

"it was a hard, hard-fought game and we know it is not good for the evolution and development of football to just go out in the group stage, so that is why we kept going and kept going and kept going,” he told FIFA.com.

The Falconets' next match is the quarterfinals which will be against Spain on Thursday, August 16th

The Spanish girls won two matches and drew one to top group C with 7 points and have shown in the tournament that they are a solid team.

The Nigerians are also no pushovers as they have shown in the past that they are capable of progressing far in the tournament.

They have finished runners-up twice, in 2014 in Canada and at the 2010 edition in Germany.