OPTA Data have crunched the numbers for the upcoming FIFA Women’s World Cup game between Australia and Nigeria.
- This will be the second FIFA Women’s World Cup meeting between Australia and Nigeria, with the two sides meeting on MD2 at the 2015 tournament. The Aussies ran out 2-0 winners courtesy of a Kyah Simon brace.
- Australia have won their last three FIFA Women’s World Cup matches against African sides, most recently a 2-0 win against Nigeria in the 2015 edition.
- Following their 1-0 win against Republic of Ireland on MD1, Australia are looking to win both of their opening two games at a single edition of the FIFA Women’s World Cup for the first time.
- Australia are the team to have played the most games at the FIFA Women’s World Cup without ever seeing a 0-0 draw (27 games); Nigeria have played the same amount of games in the competition as Australia (27) but registered their first goalless draw in their last game against Canada.
- Following their 0-0 draw against Canada in the first matchday, Nigeria will attempt to avoid losing consecutive games in a single edition of the FIFA Women’s World Cup for the first time.
- Nigeria didn’t lose against Canada on MD1 despite having just 32.5% possession. Between 2011 and 2019, only one team avoided defeat while having a lower possession figure at the FIFA Women’s World Cup – Argentina’s 0-0 draw against Japan in 2019 (28.5%).
- Nigeria have failed to score in 17 of their 27 games in the FIFA Women’s World Cup, more often than any other team; in fact, they have scored in only one of their last seven games in the competition (2-0 v Korea Republic in 2019), despite having 57 shots (12 on target) in that span.
- Australia completed 80.5% of their passes on MD1 against Republic of Ireland, one of only three times they had a passing accuracy of at least 80% in their 14 FIFA Women’s World Cup games since the beginning of the 2011 edition; it was also one of three times they faced fewer than 10 shots from their opponents over that span (9).
- Alanna Kennedy has been responsible for four of the seven times an Australian player has successfully made 70+ passes in a FIFA Women’s World Cup game since the beginning of the 2011 edition, including on MD1 this year (77); she found a teammate with at least 90% of her passes in each of her last three appearances in the competition.
- Ifeoma Onumonu was involved in more than shots than any other Nigeria player on MD1 against Canada (5 – 4 shots, 1 chance created) and was responsible for the only shot of target for her team; she was also the only player to make more than one interception for Nigeria in that game (2).
