U17 WWC: Opeyemi Ajakaye in cloud nine over consecutive Player of the Match awards

Nigerian forward, Opeyemi Ajakaye is excited after winning back-to-back player of the match awards.

The FC Robo Queens player started her campaign on bright note after finishing as the country’s topscorer in the African qualifiers with seven goals as she was voted the Player of the Match in the 4-0 win over New Zealand.

The 17-year-old continued her impactful campaign and was again named the Player of the Match on Monday as Nigeria pipped Chile 2-1 to book a place in the quarter-final of India 2022 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup.

“I am so excited and very happy to win the player of the match back-to-back,” She told NFFTV in an interview monitored by nigeriafootball.ng.

“I can’t force myself to score but will have to play with my team to achieve the goal of scoring and winning our games.”

Nigeria will now shift its focus on the quarter-final clash with the United States of America on Friday and Ajakaye is confident that Nigeria can surpass its previous quarter-final feat to book an elusive semi-final qualification.

“We are coming out fully 100% to face USA. I am not scared of any team. I want to thank every Nigerian for supporting the team and they should keep praying for us,” she concluded.

Ghana remains the most successful African team at the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup after a third-place finish in 2012 after defeating Germany 1-0 in Azerbaijan.

Nigeria will hope to match and potentially surpass this feat at this year’s edition of the tournament in India.