Nigeria’s senior women’s national team coach, Randy Waldrum, says the current crop of Super Falcons players deserve the opportunity to compete at the Paris 2024 Olympics and represent Nigeria and Africa at the global football showpiece.
The Super Falcons coach was reacting to his sides’ qualification to the Paris 2024 tournament after holding South Africa’s Banyana Banyana to a goalless stalemate in Pretoria that resulted in them securing a place in their fourth Olympics after last making an appearance in 2008.
After securing a crucial 1-0 win over Banyana Banyana in Abuja last Friday, the nine-time African champions held firm to earn a scoreless draw in Johannesburg, securing Nigeria’s qualification for the Women’s Olympic Football Tournament for the first time in 16 years.
“These women deserve this opportunity to go represent Nigeria in the best possible way and as we know this is the Olympics,” Waldrum said.
“Every team is a top team and you look at our group . It’s again like the World Cup so those are some things that come to mind because I’m already thinking about what we need to do to get ready.”
The Super Falcons edged the reigning CAF WAFCON champions 1-0 in Abuja on 05 April before the goalless draw in Pretoria a few days later which was enough to see them join the Copper Queens of Zambia who did the unthinkable by reversing a 2-1 deficit to edge Morocco 2-0 at home and secure their second consecutive ticket to the Olympics.
“I think we were just much better organized than the previous two times that we had played them and so that’s why I felt confident going into these two games. I believed in our team and I knew that we would be a hard team to break down even with their talent and the thing that you hope is that you can finish a few of your opportunities to advance and I think that’s what we did against South Africa” concluded Waldrum.
The Super Falcons will face world champions Spain, Japan and Brazil in Group C.
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