Remo Stars set up semifinal clash with Edo Queens; FC Robo, Heartland Ladies crash out

PHOTO: Pulsesports

Defending champions, FC Robo, were yesterday booted out of the ongoing Betsy Obaseki Women Football Tournament (BOWFT) by emerging force in women’s football, Remo Stars Ladies of Ikenne.

The game likened to a clash of sisters, as both teams are from the southwest region, had no sisterly tint as Remo Stars Ladies set out to show that they are a new force in Nigerian football.

Defying the scorching sun at the Western Boys Mini Stadium, Remo Stars Ladies soaked all that the defending champions threw at them early on, but they could not stop the Lagos girls from drawing first blood through Ogbuche Chidimma in the fifth minute.

Thereafter the defending champions went all out for more goals, apparently in a bid to conclude the game as a contest as early as possible; but they didn’t know that Remo Stars Ladies had other plans.

Just when fans at the mini stadium thought the game was all for FC Remo, the Wemimo Matthew-led Remo Stars Ladies came out smoking after the water break, with Ibrahim Hannah getting the equaliser off a well-taken corner kick.

With the fans were about to settle for a 1-1 first half, what seemed like a cross by Vincent Precious found its way beyond FC Robo’s goalkeeper and into the net for the Ikenne girls’ second goal.

The game went beyond FC Robo in the 78th minute when Praise increased Remo Stars Ladies’ lead by two.

The win has set up a potentially explosive game between Remo Stars Ladies and Edo Queens in the semifinals.

When they met in the group stage of the tournament, Edo Queens ran away with a 2-1 scoreline.

The second semifinal pits Bayelsa Queens, who beat Ekiti United 4-1, against Delta Queens, a 3-1 victor over Nasarawa Amazons in the last quarterfinal of the competition yesterday.

Fol