Super Falcons player, Desire Oparanozie has apologized to Nigerians for missing her penalty, which contributed to the elimination of the Super Falcons from the FIFA Womens World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
Oparanozie who came into the game as a late substitute, took the first penalty for Nigeria after the second round game against England ended goalless. She shot totally wide to blow away the advantage Nigeria had, after the English team had missed their first penalty kick.
The Wuhan Jianghan University of China player had come into the game which was her first appearance at the ongoing FIFA Womens World Cup.
Nigerian defender, Michelle Alozie also blew away the second penalty to hand the advantage back to England, who had played with 10 players from the 85th minute, after Lauren James was sent off for stamping on Michelle Alozie.
There is a feeling that this Nigerian team could have gone all the way to the finals after they stood up to some of the strongest teams in the world without losing a game in regulation time. Nigeria drew with Olympic Champions, Canada and the Republic of Ireland. Nigeria also defeated hosts Australia in a shocking but decisive 2-3 win in the group stages.
England are the current European Champions and were on the brink of losing to Nigeria in the second round of the World Cup.
Oparanozie sent the apology via her Twitter page @oparanozie9
This is the Tweet she sent:
Sad day! Very disappointing to have lost through penalties, and even more disappointing not to have converted mine. And for this I deeply apologise.
