Abby Wambach (L) of the United States vies with a player of Nigeria during the Group B match at the FIFA 2007 Women's Football World Cup in Shanghai, east China yesterday. The United States beat Nigeria 1-0. --Xinhua

The United States beat Nigeria 1-0 in the heavy rain brought by the coming typhoon Wipha to advance to the quarterfinals as leaders of the "Group of Death" in Shanghai yesterday.

The Americans were quickly into action with midfielder Lori Chalupny snatched the winner in the very first minute after collecting a center inside the box.

The United States have seven points after two wins and a hard-fought 2-2 draw with DPR Korea to top Group B. They will meet Group A runners-up England in the quarterfinals. Nigeria have to bid farewell to the tournament with a solo point to be at the basement of the group.

"We showed the level of our team, we showed the level of the African football," said Nigeria coach Ntiero Effiom.

"I hope the CAF will increase the communication between women's football clubs and take some measures to help improve the continent's level. I think we also need help from FIFA."

"I think the Americans may underestimate us. They might think that the score could be 5-0. But we played very well and did a great job," said "player of the match" Perpetua Nkwocha.

"Nigeria had strong performance this evening. The world's women's football level are raising. Nigeria played very well," said US boss Gerg Ryan.

"I'm proud of my team, especially those young players. I'm proud of qualify by leading the group."

Ryan was also wary of their quarter-inal opponent, he said: "England are very strong. The game with Germany showed how strong they are."

Although the Africans enjoyed most of the possession(with a 59% -41% at the highest), the US team were of higher class and created more chances with fine build-up.

Nigeria rallied after the interval and launched some nice offence, which put on some pressure to the North American giants.

Nigeria missed the best chance on 74 minutes, when Perpetua Nkwocha burst into the box before firing a small angle shot to slip the far post.

The "Flying Eagles" threatened the Americans with some long distance counter-attacks and caused some melee inside their rivals' area, but failed to strike.