Nigeria scored late to deny Cameroon a home triumph and extend its dominance of the women’s African Cup of Nations with a 1-0 win in the final on Saturday.
Desire Oparanozie’s 84th-minute goal in Yaounde gave defending champion Nigeria its 10th title in 12 tournaments. Only Equatorial Guinea in 2008 and 2012 has managed to wrestle the African soccer crown away from the Nigerian women in the last 25 years.
FT: Nigeria are the African Champions. @FecafootOfficie 0-1 @thenff #AWCON2016 pic.twitter.com/trgLQi97PM
— CAF (@CAF_Online) December 3, 2016
Nigeria's Women squad have won the title for the 8th time in their history @thenff #AWCON2016
— CAF (@CAF_Online) December 3, 2016
Cameroon came into this final bristling with confidence after winning all its group games and knocking out Ghana in the semifinals, the only team to take points off Nigeria in their group.
Spurred on by 40,000 home fans, Cameroon even had the better chances in the final only to end runner-up for the fourth time — all four to Nigeria.