The FIFA Women's World Cup is in full swing and the ladies are not leaving any stone unturned in keeping us entertained with some beautiful piece of football, and also pushing their quest towards glory. Yah, it's not one of those tournaments(female related tournaments) many football analysts or bloggers like talking about. The marginalization of the female folks in relation to sports have been one of the greatest challenges Women football is facing.

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From the underreporting of these female tournaments by media outlets to the the meagre support the female national teams get from their government, one can only appreciate their efforts to represent their countries. So back to the tournament that is taking place in France. Norway were certainly the favorites heading into their first game of the tournament against the Super Falcons of Nigeria.

The ladies from both teams really put up a wonderful spectacle, but Norway took their chances and left no room for the African champions to salvage a point. I was thinking the Super Falcons would take advantage of Ada Hegerberg's absence in their opening game, but it seems the African Champions needed to be reminded. Trust me, Norway made no mistake about that.

Hegerberg who happens to be the best female player in the world(she won the 2018 Ballon d'Or) has refused to feature for the national team in this tournament as a protest against inequalities, both in working conditions and support between the Men's and Women's games. It's really sad when I hear about stuffs like this, and yet the government expects them to give their all for the nation. The general posture towards women's football needs to improve.

For Nigeria, one would have expected them to put up a better performance than what we saw in their first game against Norway, a match that culminated in a 3-0 defeat, making the Super Falcons the team that have suffered most defeats(17) since the inception of the tournament. Norway where more prepared knowing they were coming against the African Champions who have won the continental competition for four consecutive times now.

Well, I would say that the better team won, Norway were certainly the deserving team. It didn't take long for Norway to draw the first blood. They opened the scoring in the 17th minute, thanks to a goal from Reiten. Utland made it 2-0 at the 34th minute to take the game a bit more farther from Nigeria's reach. They continued to press on, and will later get an own goal by Ohale at the 37th minute to make it 3-0 to Norway. The second half saw Nigeria struggling to register a goal, especially with Oshoala missing some chances. It ended 3-0 in favour of Norway, and they will be looking forward to a tougher challenge against the host(France) in their next match, while Nigeria will hope to see if they can keep their dream alive by beating South Korea in their next game.