Nigeria’s national U-17 women’s football team, the Flamingos, yesterday confounded pundits at the ongoing FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup, by beating defending champions and Group B leaders, North Korea, 3-1.

The shock victory at the championship holding in Morocco propelled the Nigerian girls to the second round of the competition.

They finished second in Group B with six points from three matches with Korea overall winners, while Poland, who dumped Puerto Rico 6-2, finished third and also qualified for the knockout rounds of the competition.

After losing their opening game 2-1 to Portugal and beating whipping girls, Puerto Rico, Nigeria needed at least a draw against the free-scoring Koreans to advance to the second round. But they gave their fans more than they expected.

Nigeria opened the scoring through Oluwakemi Adegbuyi, who collected a ball down the left, muscled off a defender and finished with her right foot.

After the goal, the Flamingos wanted more and struck for a second shortly before intermission when Oluebube Umejiaku surged through the DPR Korea half and finished past goalkeeper Kim Son-gyong.

DPR Korea came out with a sense of urgency to start the second half, but Nigeria did well to withstand the pressure and then found a crippling third via Kanyinsola Yusuf’s exquisitely-taken free-kick. The reigning champions pulled a goal back through a late Yu Jong-hyang penalty conversion, but the day belonged to Nigeria.

Nigeria will now meet the runners-up in Group F is the second round on Thursday.