Coach Bev Priestman of Canada has admitted that Nigeria’s Super Falcons are not an easy team to crack when both teams clash in Group B of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup later in the year.
The Englishwoman led Canada to impressive wins over the likes of Germany, Brazil and Australia and she is poised to lead the team again this year.
Assessing her opponents in Group B, the coach said despite the inconsistent nature of the Nigerian side, they are not pushovers at a big stage.
“I think we’ve got a very tough group with three games against teams that’ll give us very different problems. There are definitely some banana skins along the way and we’ll need to be ready. “
“You look at Ireland and they’re a very hard team to beat, unorthodox at times. With Nigeria, you could argue that their consistency hasn’t been great, but when they’re good, they’re really good. As for Australia, I think they’ve hit another level in the last six months. They’ve also got some world-class players in the likes of Sam Kerr, and you can’t ignore that.
She however, said: “But I think we just need calmness and belief in what we do well. I definitely believe that on our day we can beat all three of those teams. We’ll be going to try and top the group.”
On her expectations from her team, she said: “I think we’ve been dealt some challenges. But on our day we can beat any team in the world. If we can get on the podium at this World Cup, I think we’ve done a really good job under the circumstances. And we’re here to climb that mountain. We know in tournaments that things have to go your way. But I go into this tournament absolutely believing in the group of players that I’ve got to work with.”