Paris 2024 Olympic to remember for Echegini

No doubt, Nigeria’s Jennifer Echegini will always remember Paris 2024 Olympic Games with a grin in her eyes for two reasons, PUNCH Sports Extra reports.

Despite the Super Falcons exiting the Women’s Football Tournament at the group stage, losing all three matches, the PSG midfielder can smile adversity for holding the distinction of scoring the Women’s Olympic Football Tournament’s 500th goal when she powered home a terrific effort from the edge of the box against Japan.

It was the only strike Randy Waldrum’s team managed during the group phase, where they lost 1-0 to Brazil and Spain in their first two matches before capitulating 3-1 to Japan.

Other salient parts of the statistics released by FIFA on Friday following the conclusion of the group phase on Thursday are as follows:.

-The evergreen Marta became only the second Brazilian to rack up 200 appearances for the Seleção in their 2-1 defeat to Japan. Unfortunately for her, she was sent off in her 201st match against Spain.

Alexia Putellas plundered the latest goal in Women’s Olympic Football Tournament group-stage history, with her stunner against Brazil coming in the 17th minute of stoppage time to seal a 2-0 win. She broke the record of Canada’s Vanessa Gilles from just three days earlier, when she struck a dramatic winner over France in the 12th additional minute.

Marie-Antoinette Katoto netted five of France’s six goals in the first round to top the scoring charts, accounting for 83.3 percent of her nation’s strikes. She joins Sun Wen of Sydney 2000 and Barbra Banda of Tokyo 2020 in scoring 80 percent or more of her team’s goals; of those to net, three or more have netted at this stage of a tournament.

Australia’s 6-5 victory over Zambia, unsurprisingly, broke all manner of records. Perhaps most incredibly, Australia, having trailed from the 21st minute until the 78th minute when Steph Catley levelled the game at 5-5, set a new record for the longest time a team had trailed a game before winning it. They smashed Sweden’s record of 43 minutes when they came from a goal down to defeat Nigeria at Athens 2004. The match was also the second-highest scoring game in tournament history, while the Matildas also became the first side to recover from three goals down to win.

Emma Hayes led the USA to three straight victories in the groups, taking the nation to 30 wins in total—more than any other side. Their closest rivals are Germany with 19 and Brazil with 17.

-Reigning gold medalists Canada took their unbeaten streak at the Games to ten following three straight victories. Only the USA between 2008 and 2016 can better that, having remained undefeated for 15 matches in total.

After both secured their passage to the quarterfinals, Brazil and the USA are the only sides to have played in every knockout stage of the tournament since its inception in 1996.

-Barbra Banda became the first player to score three hat-tricks at the Games in that rip-roaring Australia tussle. She already held the record of being the first player to score hat-tricks in back-to-back matches from Tokyo 2020, with her third treble taking her further into the annals of Olympic history.

Japan’s Momoko Tanikawa was the only teenager to net in the groups. The 19-year-old’s big moment came against Brazil, when she lofted a memorable 25-yard strike over Lorena in the sixth minute of stoppage time to crown a famous victory.