July 14, (THEWILL) – As the ongoing TotalEnergies 2022 Africa Women’s Cup of Nations in Casablanca, the defending champions of Africa, the Super Falcons of Nigeria, are hoping to earn their ticket to the FIFA Women’s World Cup, when they clash with subregional rivals, the Lionesses of Cameroon, in the quarter-finals.
Each of the four countries that advance to the semi-finals will receive automatic qualifications to the 2023 Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. The fifth-place team will have another opportunity to compete in a playoff event the next year.
Nigeria got off with a disappointing 2-1 loss to South Africa’s Bayana Bayana in their opening Group C match, last Monday, but won their other two matches against Botswana and Burundi with six points and six goals advantage, sending them to the last eight. Cameroon also had a poor start, drawing with Zambia, but admirably, earned themselves a quarter-final in subsequent matches against Togo and Tunisia.
Super Falcons’ coach, Randy Waldrum, said of their preparations after his squad arrived in Morocco’s commercial and economic capital, Casablanca, on Monday, ahead of Thursday’s encounter: “We are ready to face Cameroon.”
His terse statement was backed up by comments by team captain, Onome Ebi, who added: “Of course, we know what to expect. The Cameroonians also want to go to the World Cup. But we have never missed the World Cup and we won’t start now. Our eyes are fully focused on Australia and New Zealand 2023, and then we can start talking about the trophy.”
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
