Nigeria on way home despite 1-0 win over Canada

DRESDEN, Germany (AFP) - Nigeria finished their women's World Cup campaign on Tuesday with a 1-0 win over Canada in Group A, but both teams are heading home after failing to reach the quarter-finals.
Nigeria were the fastest to react following a 10 minute-long power-cut towards the end of the second half, poaching the winner in the 84th minute—just after the lights went back on.
The black-out meant the game had 15 minutes of added time.
The power-cut on 72 minutes temporarily halted the game, but Nigeria caught the Canadian defence napping when the game restarted.
After the Africans had a shot blocked, midfielder Perpetua Nkwocha—who had hit the post in the first half—was the fastest to react and slammed her shot home.
Nigeria coach Eucharia Uche, who has sparked controversy during the tournament by branding homosexuality 'dirty', said she was happy with the victory.
"We were out of contention from the tournament's out-set when we lost to France and I don't think we will make that mistake again," said Uche.
"This is a plus for the game in Nigeria. We should be talking about playing in the finals, but we are lagging behind in Africa in terms of preparations, in terms of league.
"Lots need to be done, we need to catch up with the rest of the world."
It was heart-break for the Canadians as the CONCACAF champions now head home with three defeats from their World Cup campaign, while Nigeria picked up three points for their first victory.
Canada coach Carolina Morace paid tribute to her side who went down fighting.
"The team played with their hearts and showed some good football," she said.
"They did what I asked, the first chance we had after a few minutes and the ball didn't want to go into the net.
"We knew Nigeria are a tough team, the first-half was 50-50, we dominated the game in the second half, but they had the chances to score."
As both sides lost to quarter-finalists France and Germany in their previous group games, this meeting at Dynamo Dresden's ground was simply for pride in front of 13,638 fans.
Canada came into the game licking their wounds after a painful 4-0 reversal at the hands of France last Thursday in Bochum, the same day Nigeria went down fighting in a bruising 1-0 defeat to Germany in Frankfurt.
The Africans went closest to hitting the target in the first half as Nigeria midfielder Ebere Orji hit the crossbar and Nkwocha smashed her shot off the post.
At the other end, Canada captain Christine Sinclair, playing with a face mask thanks to a stray German elbow in the opening 2-1 defeat to the hosts, went close midway through the half.
The Nigerians just shaded first-half possession and defender Onome Ebi earned the game's first yellow card on the hour mark for a clattering foul, but despite plenty of Canadian endeavour, the red shirts could not break through.
After the short-lived lights out, Nigeria reacted quickest to the disruption and Nkwocha's strike gave Canada goalkeeper Karina LeBlanc little chance.
In added time, Sinclair wasted a golden chance when she mis-timed her shot with the goal at her mercy—it just was not to be Canada's night.
Stadium spokesman Winfried Nass has said there will be an inquiry into the power cut and the problem will be solved before Sunday's quarter-final after the stadium's back-up generator failed following a brief power failure in the Dresden area.