4 months ago
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With just four days to the commencement of the 2024 Paris Olympics, football enthusiasts are eagerly anticipating the women’s football event that has seen some mouth-watering fixtures following some interesting draws, PUNCH Sports Extra reports.
The Super Falcons will be returning to the Olympics to compete for the fourth time since they last played in this tournament in Beijing in 2008.
Before that they qualified twice for the Games in Sydney in 2000 and in the Athens Games in 2004 where they secured better results – the quarterfinal finish, the best tournament showing recorded by an African nation to date.
They successfully qualified for the event in Paris after brushing aside old foes South Africa 1-0 on aggregate following a scoreless draw in the final round of their qualification clash.
Before that, in the first leg, Nigeria beat Banyana Banyana 1-0 at Moshood Abiola National Stadium to carry the aggregate advantage.
The 11-time Women’s Africa Cup of Nations champions are Africa’s most successful women’s football team.
They remain the only women’s national team from the Confederation of African Football to make a cut in the quarterfinals of the Fifa Women’s World Cup and the Olympics.
Randy Waldrum’s charges are also the only African team to have qualified for every edition of the Fifa Women’s World Cup.
Nigeria join 11 nations to compete at the Olympics. The 12 teams are split into three groups of four.
Nigeria, who will be making their fourth appearance at the Olympics, are pitted against Spain, Japan and Brazil in Group C.
Spain
The Falcons face a tough task a Spanish side genuinely are above all other women’s national teams at this moment. The World Cup winners backed that triumph up with success in the Nations League in February, as they were hardly challenged in the finals by the Netherlands or France, and comfortably earned automatic qualification in their Women’s Euro qualifying campaign.
While the Spaniards look unbeatable, a 2-1 defeat to the Czech Republic in July will have offered some encouragement to opponents and served as a reminder that Spain are not unbeatable. A 4-0 thrashing at the hands of Japan at last year’s World Cup was further evidence of that fact, while they were also 2-0 down at home to Denmark in the 72nd minute of their June meeting before mounting an incredible late comeback to win. Basically, La Roja are not flawless.
Yet, these moments of concern are so few and far between, and can often be caveated. The defeat to Japan was a group-stage match in a tournament that they won, they were without Barcelona star Aitana Bonmati against Denmark, and a red card meant they weren’t at the full complement to try to complete a comeback against the Czechs. So, it still feels unlikely that anyone will be able to stop them at the Olympics.
Japan
One of the women’s teams who have always been a delight to watch are the Japanese side.
Last year at the women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, Japan caused a real stir when they dismantled the eventual a winners Spain in a shocking 4-0 win in the group stages.
The Nadeshiko are a side with bags of talent, but the ruthless and efficient manner in which they dispatched one of the tournament favourites was certainly eye-catching.
Sadly for Japan, that was the high point of their World Cup. They bowed out in the quarter-finals and that incredible group-stage fixture ended up being a mere footnote in a tournament which Spain ultimately won.
There are not many who doubt Japan’s ability to perform, with them strutting their stuff in recent friendlies against New Zealand and Ghana.
However, if there is any side the Falcons can pick a point from, it has to be against the Asians.
Brazil
Arguably, one of the most dreaded teams at the Olympics, Waldrum side will have to be at their best should they want to stand a chance of qualifying from the group stage.
After a disastrous World Cup campaign in which they crashed out in the group stages for the first time, Brazil made a coaching change in September that saw Arthur Elias replace Pia Sundhage.
Since then, the Selecao have won 10 of their 15 games, reaching the CONCACAF W Gold Cup final in March as a result. There have been positive signs as Elias tries to get this extremely talented squad to fulfil its potential, but everything is not quite there yet.
Their three defeats to Canada, Japan and the United States all came to nil, with there still work to do on the attacking front despite all the stars Brazil have in that area of the pitch.
On their day, the South American champions are such a dangerous opponent and they have been good at beating weaker teams.
Despite all said and done, the Falcons on their day are a dangerous side.
In a tournament of shocks, Nigeria’s run to the last 16 of last year’s World Cup was a pleasant surprise and saw them earn a lot of respect for their tactical nous, resilience in defence and ability to create opportunities against quality opponents. Indeed, only the woodwork prevented them from beating eventual finalists England in the knockout rounds.
The African giants will hope to build on their last outing performance where against all odds they made it out of a difficult group.
They will actually believe they can repeat last year’s feat and their four clean sheets in four Olympic qualifying games was a reminder that they are always tough to break down.
However, a lack of action in the three months preceding the Games – bar a behind-closed-doors friendly defeat to Canada on Wednesday – is far from ideal preparation.
English (US) ·