The past
Nigeria is one of four teams - the others being Brazil, Germany and USA - who have been omnipresent at the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup. After failing to advance to the knockout stages at their first two attempts, they qualified for the quarter-finals in 2006 and 2008, but lost to Brazil and France respectively. The Super Falconets came of age in the last two tournaments, both times making it to the semi-finals. In Germany 2010 they were beaten just once - in the final by the hosts. Two years later the west Africans topped their group and beat Mexico in the last eight, before being beaten by USA in the semi-finals. While the Americans went on to win the tournament, Nigeria lost the play-off to Japan 2-1 to finish fourth.
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