19 November 2016

Falcons eye eighth title as AWCON begins


The 2016   African Women’s Cup of Nations begins on Saturday with hosts Cameroon taking on Egypt in the opening match in Yaounde. South Africa face Zimbabwe in the second Group A match of the day at the same venue.

Nigeria, Mali, Kenya and Ghana are the other teams in the tournament.


Defending champions  Super Falcons, who  clash against Mali in their first Group B game in Limbe on Sunday, will look to win the tournament for the eighth-time, having won the event in 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2010 and 2014.

   Nigeria  lost two editions of the competition to Equatorial Guinea in 2008 and 2012.

The Falcons face  Ghana on Wednesday  and play  Kenya three days later.

Nigeria coach Florence  Omagbemi, who  won the title four times, will be out to win her first tournament as coach.

“Yes, it’s my first tournament as a coach but my experience as a player has prepared me for this. Teams want to beat Nigeria, we will work extra hard to retain the title,” Omagbemi told BBC Sport on Friday.

Nigeria, South Africa and Cameroon have appeared at every tournament since the event began in 1998 as the African Women’s Championship.

Omagbemi has named  Sweden-based Rita Chikwelu the captain of the national team. The substantive captain Evelyn Nwabuoku  was ruled out of the championship  due to injury.

“Alongside my assistants, we have decided to pick Rita Chikwelu to be the captain,” the former Nigeria captain Omagbemi told thenff.com.

Chikwelu was a member of the Beijing  2008  Olympics  and Germany  2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup squads.

 Meanwhile, Falconets coach Peter Dedevbo has urged his team to  take their  2016  Papua New Guinea FIFA  Under-20 Women’s World Cup last group game against  Spain on Sunday seriously.

He said, “To progress in this tournament, we need to toughen up for the last match against Spain and I believe that God will grant us success.

“We are going to work on all the departments of the team from  the defence to  the attack. The fact that we defeated Canada does not imply that the team is a hundred per cent compact.”

Nigeria need to win the game scheduled to kick off at 7am on Sunday  while hoping that Japan do not get a win against Canada in the other  Group B match.

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