African champions Nigeria intend to take all their opportunities when they clash with the senior women team of Niger Republic in Abidjan today to seal a place in the WAFU Women’s Cup Tournament.
The Nigeriens are the standout whipping team of Group B after a 10-0 bashing in the hands of Mali on Thursday evening, just after the Falcons thrashed Burkina Faso’s girls 5-1 at the same Parc des Sports in Treichville.
Former junior international Uchenna Kanu bagged a hat-trick, and was named Woman-of-the-Match. The Burkinabes prosecuted most of the encounter with 10 players after Salimata Simpore was sent off in the 16th minute for the foul that led to the first penalty kick.
Today’s clash should be even easier for the nine-time African champions, but they are determined not to take anything for granted as football has continued to prove to be unpredictable.
“We want not just to win, but to win well so that we quickly seal a place in the quarterfinals,” said Captain Evelyn Nwabuoku.
A high –score win on Saturday will earn the Falcons an early ticket into the semi finals, take confidence to maximum level and set them in good mood for the concluding stages of the of the sub-regional championship.
Read also: Oparanozie named Super Falcons captain
Against the Burkinabes, Uchenna Kanu opened scoring as early as the eighth minutes, before Captain Nwabuoku and Amarachi Okoronkwo converted penalty kicks. Kanu scored two more goals in the second period before Charlotte Milogo pulled one back for Burkina Faso.
After today’s clash with the Nigeriens, the FIFA World Cup –bound Falcons will tackle high-scoring Mali on Tuesday evening.
According to the team’s programme, the Falcons will fly out of Nigeria to Austria on May 21, where they will spend two weeks at the world-renowned Avita Resort in Bad Tatzmannsdorf to perfect strategies for the 8th FIFA Women’s World Cup finals. They will arrive in France on June 4.
Also, Super Falcons head coach, Thomas Dennerby has named Desire Oparanozie as the captain of the women national team, BSNSports.com.ng can report.
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