Super Falcons drawn in Olympics group of death after qualifying for Paris by edging out South Africa

NIGERIA'S Super Falcons have been drawn un the group of death at this summer's women's football tournament after managing to qualify for the Paris Olympics by edging out South Africa's Banyana Banyana last night.

In what was a tough two-legged ties, the Falcons won 1-0 on aggregate, thanks to their lone goal victory at the MKO Abiola Stadium in Abuja last Friday. Yesterday, at the at the Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria, the two teams played a goalless draw, allowing the Falcons to qualify for Paris 2024, alongside Zambia's Copper Queens  who beat Morocco's Atlas Lionesses to clinch Africa's other slot.

However, the hard work is just beginning as the Falcons have been placed in the most difficult group possible with their opponents including world champions Spain, Brazil and Japan. Despite that, the Falcons will be confident of their chances as they showed at the last Women's World Cup that they can compete with anyone, having come through a group that included Canada, Australia and Ireland.

Canada were the Olympics champions, while Australia were the hosts and all three teams were ranked much higher than Nigeria going into the tournament. Despite the odds stacked against them, the Falcons were one of the two teams to merge from the group and only got knocked out on penalties by eventual finalists England.

Super Falcons head coach Randy Waldrum has called on the sports ministry and the Nigeria Football Federation to step up preparations for the Falcons in the run-up to the Olympics. In the past, the Super Falcons have never made it past the group stages at the Olympics but this time around, Mr Waldrum is confident in his team.

Mr Waldrum  said: “My plea is to help us to prepare properly, we need to camp in Europe, we need proper training and transportation and we need to do things right.  Every team at the Olympics is top, like the World Cup, we’re in the Group of Death."

Meanwhile, in what is a big blow to South Africa as the reigning African champions, Banyana Banyana will not be at the Olympics, having also missed the 2020 edition. Head coach Desiree Ellis and her charges were confident of overcoming Nigeria, having beaten the Super Falcons in three of their four most recent meetings.

However, Mr Waldrum insists that despite not making a fuss about it like the Banyana, he knew he had a better squad than the free-talking South Africans. He added: “We were much more organised than the previous times we played them.”

“South Africa talked a lot before these two matches but we just kept quiet. That’s why I felt confident. I believe in our team and I knew we would be a hard team to break down even with their talent."

In the other qualifier, Zambia shocked Morocco beating them 2-0 in Rabat, clinching Africa's second Olympic ticket. Morocco's Atlas Lioness' had won the first leg 2-1 in Lusaka and had been expecting the second leg to be a mere formality but suffered a shock home defeat, losing 3-2 on aggregate.