After dismantling Mali 6-0 in their opening fixture of the Africa Women's Nations Cup on Saturday to move top of group B, the Super Falcons will face a stiff test against eternal rivals, the Black Queens of Ghana at the Stade Municipal de Limbe on Wednesday in their second group B match.
The encounter could decide the fate of both teams, in terms of qualification to the semi final stages considering the fact that Nigeria defeated Mali 6-0 while Ghana thrashed Kenya 3-1, to stay joint top with their West African neighbour on three points.
Statistically, the Super Falcons have won seven, lost one and drawn two of their last 10 competitive matches against the Black Queens of Ghana at the Africa Women's Nations Cup since their first meeting in 1991.
Super Falcons coach, Florence Omagbemi will be banking on the goal scoring prowess of Asisat Oshoala, who banged in four goals against Mali to move top of the goal scorer's chart to rattle the Ghanaians defence.
Omagbemi insisted that she's concentrating on her team ahead of the country’s second game at the ongoing African Women Cup of Nations against Ghana.
“We are trying to refocus our mindset to our next game against Ghana after the victory against Mali,” the former international said.
“We are yet to get the qualification into the quarterfinal so we need to work hard to get victory in the next game. Every coach has a way of managing team, and the mindset of Ghanaian coach was to concentrate on Nigeria.”
Meanwhile, Ghana's Black Queens coach, Yusif Basigi has expressed optimism that his team would give the Super Falcons a run for their money on Wednesday.
“Ghana versus Nigeria is always a different ball game. They massacred Mali 6-0 but it doesn’t mean that they will massacre Ghana.”
“Against Nigeria, I think we need to up our game a little bit,” Basigi was quoted by Football Ghana as saying on Monday.
“We’ll revise our notes on our weaker side, we’ll work on it and polish on the stronger side as well.”
“Nigeria shouldn’t underestimate us at all, because when these two countries meet in football, it could go either side, hence we’ll really be determined to shock them and progress to the next stage.”
