From Africa to Europe: Two Victories, One Passion

It's been an interesting past two days, and I'm super excited about how the WAFCON and the UEFA Women's Euros turned out, because at the end of both competitions, both of my favorite countries ended up coming out victorious by lifting the trophy. Team Nigeria, which is my country, lifted the WAFCON for the 10th time in grand style yesterday, and the England women did the same today, beating the Spanish women's team on penalty, and I must say that it was an exciting tournament filled with lots of drama and fun money.

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I must confess that while it was quite easy to predict that Nigeria would win the tournament from the onset, the same can't be said for the English team because they've got a lot of tough competition. Nigeria, on the other hand, also had tough competition but not as much as that of the Euros, and that's why Nigeria has won 10 out of the 13 times the competition has been held; in fact, it ought to be 12 out of 15, but two of those were later said to be another competition entirely, but then I'm still pleased with their performance.

Going through the group stage and other rounds with 4 clean sheets and not even conceding an open play goal until they were in the final against the host nation, Morocco, who posed as a very tough opponent for the Falcons, we first went down by 2 goals in the first half in the final, but things took a positive turn in the second half as the Falcons came in with fresh energy and determination and went on to not only draw the match but also win 3-2, without having to go into extra time. I'm excited, and I'm saying a big congratulations to the girls.

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England on the second half also had a great tournament, and while you might be wondering why I'm supporting them since I'm from Nigeria and it's normal for me to support Nigerian girls, well, the reason for supporting England women isn't far-fetched, and it's because my favorite club side, Arsenal, has six players amongst the English players, in the persons of Captain Williamson, Mead, Kelly, Russo, Michelle, and the like, so this prompted my support for them, and it's been an amazing ride. Even though other nations had Arsenal women players, none has as many as the English team.

So seeing them come out victorious was a thing of joy. In fact, the game ending 1-1 in full time was due to the impact of Arsenal women players from both teams. For instance, Mariano, an Arsenal player, opened the scoring for Spain in the first half before Kelly, another Arsenal player, created an assist for her teammate for both club and country, Russo, who scored the equalizer, and at the end of the match, during the penalties, Kelly was the one who scored the winning penalty that cemented England winning the trophy back-to-back.

Thank you for your time.