Two games are left in Thursday's Women's World Cup slate. One of the matches is going to be between the hosts Australia and Nigeria. After the 1st round, the Australians have 3 points while Nigeria has a point. In this match, I predict that Nigeria won't lose by more than 1 goal.

The start of the tournament was very tough for the Australians. They played against Ireland and only thanks to Stephanie Catley's penalty the hosts won the game. While Australia had 63% ball control, they had only 2 shots on target while the opponents had 1. Nigeria made a surprise in the 1st match as they drew 0:0 against Canada. There was some kind of loss for Nigeria though as Deborah Abiodun received a red card at the end of the match. Maybe there was some luck for the Nigerians as well because the opponents missed a penalty.

In this game, I'm not saying that Australia won't win but the victory could be very narrow. First of all, Australia is missing their captain Sam Kerr, and she's the main scoring option for the national team. She won't be playing in the group stage and that is a huge loss. The Australians have also revealed that Mary Fowler and Aivi Luik are ruled out after suffering mild concussions in training.

Nigeria is playing very well recently. Before the World Cup, they had some friendly games, and Nigeria was able to beat 3 teams from the World Cup - New Zealand, Haiti and Costa Rica. Nigeria played great defense against Canada. Nigeria managed 19 successful tackles in its first match, which highlights the real strength of the team.

The Nigerians played also very great against the Canadian crosses. Australia’s system was built to supply Fowler and Kerr with crosses. Without that excellent striking duo and no real depth behind Foord, the Aussies don’t have enough firepower to separate from Nigeria.

周四的女足世界杯还剩下两场比赛。其中一场比赛将在东道主澳大利亚和尼日利亚之间进行。第一轮结束后，澳大利亚队积3分，尼日利亚队积1分。在这场比赛中，我预测尼日利亚不会输超过1球。

对澳大利亚人来说，比赛一开始就非常艰难。他们与爱尔兰队比赛，多亏了斯蒂芬妮·卡特利的点球，东道主才赢得了比赛。虽然澳大利亚有63%的控球率，但他们只有2次射正，而对手有1次。尼日利亚队在第一场比赛中以0:0战平加拿大队，令人惊讶。尼日利亚在比赛结束时吃了一张红牌，这对尼日利亚来说是一种损失。也许尼日利亚人也有运气，因为对手错失了一个点球。

在这场比赛中，我并不是说澳大利亚不会赢，但胜利可能会非常微弱。首先，澳大利亚队失去了队长萨姆·科尔，而她是国家队的主要得分选择。她将不能参加小组赛，这是一个巨大的损失。澳大利亚队还透露，玛丽·福勒和艾维·卢克在训练中出现轻微脑震荡，因此将缺席比赛。

尼日利亚最近踢得很好。在世界杯之前，他们进行了一些友谊赛，尼日利亚击败了世界杯上的三支球队——新西兰、海地和哥斯达黎加。尼日利亚对加拿大的防守很好。尼日利亚队在首场比赛中成功抢断了19次，这凸显了这支球队的真正实力。

尼日利亚人在面对加拿大人的传中时也发挥得非常出色。澳大利亚的体系是为福勒和科尔提供传中而建立的。没有了这对出色的锋线组合，也没有真正的后防线深度，澳大利亚队没有足够的火力与尼日利亚队分开。