It was another evening of intense battle between the hosts and the champions of Africa. The substance of the game and perhaps the result is far from what many of us predicted, and as some people will always say, "Football is unpredictable." It was the last group game in a nest that played host to France, Norway, Korea Republic and Nigeria. Yah, we all knew that France were gonna qualify as the favourites and perhaps Norway will have to drag second place with either Nigeria or Korea.

Monday night saw the undisputable Rulers of Women football in Africa pitched against a highflying French team that have been designated the tournament favorites by many football analysts. While Diacre's side had already qualified for the knockout stages with six points going into the game, Nigeria knew they had to win the match against all odds, even though a draw would still put them out as possible best losers. The host nation from their two previous games have shown they were not of the same stock with their group colleagues, and so had no problem settling for a win.

Whether anyone likes it or not, the French team have a way of ending their games with a win, and it doesn't matter how they arrive at that. "Winning is winning" many will say. After humbling Korea Republic and finding a way past Norway in their first two games, many reserved no doubts on the massacre they were gonna unleash on the Super Falcons despite having booked a place in the next round. I checked the bookies and the odds said it all. Nigeria were given over 15 odds to beat France, while the hosts did not even have up to 2 odds to win.

Merely looking at those odds and the social media predictions, I thought the Super Falcons of Nigeria were gonna suffer their 18th FIFA World Cup defeat in a humiliating manner, however, it turned out to be an interesting game and it was worth the while. Let's just say the world was expecting too much from France in a game they had nothing to lose. I practically don't see a big reason why many expected France to go all out into the game. Being unarguably the favorites, maybe they took the game with a pinch of salt and they almost got paid for it, they should be thankful the Nigerian Front line are not at their best.

It was the second game in a row that France were beneficiary of VAR's warm embrace. Fortune was their friend as they took back-to-back penalty kicks after the Nnadozie, the Nigerian goalkeeper moved off her line. This same scenario played out during the game between France and Norway and it was perhaps the brightest moment for the French team against a resilient Nigerian side. Though the game later ended 1-0 in favour of the hosts, but they had to squeeze it from the rock. A Wendie Renard 79th penalty goal was all that made the difference, and the host needed it to boost their momentum in the tournament.

While many Nigerians and sports enthusiasts around the globe have taken to the social media to decry the harshness of the referee towards the African champions, others are of the view that the referee acted within the bounds of her powers. In the end all that matters in the game of football is the result, trust me, Liverpool faithfuls understands this better. The French team may have underperformed against the African side, thereby giving their future opponents a glimpse of their flaws, but they've always finished with a win and that's what you can beat.

All they wanted from the start was to have the nine points from their group games and they did. Les Bluese coach Diacre made this known after the game, and she said "We are entering the second stage of our World Cup, the last 16. We wanted to get there with three wins, that's the case. We will start thinking about this next step now." Though they grabbed the whole points in the group stage, the French side are not unaware that the competition will get tougher going forward, especially with the likes of USA, Germany and Brazil still around and possibly their future opponents.

Personally, I don't think the disappointing performance of the hosts was only based on their lack of coordination in the match, but because the Nigerian Super Falcons came with a better motivation to change the game and give them a run for their money. The last time both teams came against each other in 2018, it was a friendly game and the French had a fun filled day, humiliating Nigeria 8-0 in that match. Perhaps the African champions wanted to redeem their pride and they came fully prepared to avoid suffering the same fate. They were more solid and didn't give the hosts a space to execute their game plan. Oshoala too was not at her best moment, as her performance have attracted criticisms from fans. Be that as it may, Nigeria still stand a chance of qualifying as one of the best third place teams, it depends on what happens in other games.