The Super Falcons’ Olympic journey to Paris has come to an end.

A disappointing defeat to Japan in the Group C final saw them exit the tournament, Japan ended the Super Falcons’ Olympic dream by winning 3-1.

Nigeria lost their first two games (Brazil and Spain) but went into Wednesday’s match with hopes of securing a place in the quarter-finals of the women’s Olympics.

However, Japan extinguished that glimmer of hope by scoring two goals in 10 minutes in the 22nd minute to silence coach Randy Waldrum’s girls.

Hamano Maika opened the scoring, while Tanako Maina beat Chiamaka Nnadozie with a beautiful strike in the 32nd minute, the Japanese team’s second goal and made the Nigerian girls struggle to score. They realized that when Jennifer Echegini scored a hopeful goal in the 42nd minute for the Super Falcons.

Their dreams of a great comeback were dashed when Hiroshi Kitagawa scored in stoppage time to restore Japan’s two-goal lead. The second half of the game began to calm down and the Nigerian team made a poor transition.

The Japanese team also had the opportunity to score more points, but failed to increase their points. Nigeria last participated in the Olympic women’s football tournament 16 years ago.

In another match in Group C, Spain clinched the victory by beating Brazil 2-0.

The Japanese team came second and the South American team came third. Nigeria has zero points and is at the bottom of the group.