Legendary England women’s footballer Rachel Yankey has said Nigeria’s Super Falcons are a hard opponent to play against.
European champions England will hope to continue their winning run at this year’s FIFA women’s World Cup when they face the Falcons on Monday.
While England won all their three group games, the nine-time African champions won one and drew two of their Group B fixtures.
This is the second time both countries will meet in the tournament after England won 3-2 in a group stage tie in the 1995 edition.
However, in two friendly games played in 2002 and 2004 the Falcons won 1-0 and 3-0 respectively.
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Yankey, who played for England from 1997 to 2013, noted that the Falcons impressive performance in the group stage will motivate them going into the round of 16 clash.
“I think the Nigeria game will be difficult to be quite honest, they are a hard opponent to play against, but now you’ve got people that feel on top of the world really,” the 43-year-old was quoted on Enfield Independent.
“Scoring goals, playing a good style of football. I imagine they are in a really good place.”
The last time the Falcons reached the round of 16 was at the 2019 tournament in France where they lost 3-0 to Germany.
