A brace from Rasheedat Ajibade and a goal each from Uchenna Kanu and Asisat Oshoala, earned Nigeria’s Super Falcons a 4-0 win against Ethiopia in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games second round qualifiers on Tuesday in Abuja, completesports.com reports.
The Falcons picked the third round ticket 5-1 on aggregate after holding the Ethiopians to a 1-1 draw in the first leg in Addis Ababa last week.
After holding out for most part of the first half, the Falcons eventually broke the deadlock in the first minute of added time in the first half.
Kanu received a long pass, ran past her markers inside the box and slotted beyond the keeper.
In the 50th minute Ajibade made it 2-0 as she tapped into the net after Oshoala put in a low cross from the right.
Oshoala got the Falcons’ third goal with a beautiful header off a cross from Kanu on 68 minutes.
Also Read: ‘The Future Is Yours’ — Agent Calenda Hails Osimhen On Ballon D’Or Feat
In the 72nd minute, Oshoala provided her second assist of the game as she set up Ajibade for her second of the game to make it 4-0.
The Falcons will now meet the winner between Uganda and Cameroon in the third round.
The last time the Falcons played at the Olympics was at Beijing 2008, since then they have missed three straight games.
10 Comments
Good Win. They need to be in París next year after dat Salisu Yusuf man bungled our hope of fielding a star studded side for the Men…imagine an olympics with Gift Orban and Boniface leading our attack with Raphael Onyedika in the middle and Igoh Ogbu of Slavia Prague at the back…we have very decent players within the age grade but Salisu was busy inviting journey men …probably bcos those ones are “pliable”.
Alhamdulilah. To God be the glory. Kai. I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know. Why NFF is disgracing Nigeria like this.
Why is the Nigeria Football Federation very poor in every aspect of the sports?
Super Falcons is our national team, and NFF have to respect the Super Falcons like they are doing for the Super Eagles.
It was very shameful to watch the Super Falcons match today. Poor coverage and the pitch were substandard.
The government and NFF officials are doing like they are doing us a favor, but no, we hired them to get the job done for Nigeria.
Nonetheless, NFF lied to us. They are betrayals. Why did coach Waldrum not show up for this second leg NFF?
We, the citizens, are trying our best to make our country great, but the government and its officials don’t put in more effort to make our nation grow because of their corruptions and selfishness.
Ethiopia was able to televise the first leg of the match on YouTube with quality coverage, but NFF always cut corners.
I was ashamed of NFF watching Super Falcons like watching primary school football.
Lastly, CSN is also not doing a great job. So, you can report the match news of the Super Falcons but could not run the live commentary, but if it was Super Eagles, you would run the live commentary.
The local coach did his best, but NFF should consider a new coach if NFF can’t reconsider coach Waldrum.
Lastly, NFF should stop playing home games in Abuja. Uyo is the best to play our home matches because Uyo has a world-class pitch, and the whole stadium is way better than Abuja. Plus, fans will turn up to watch any Nigeria home games compared to Abuja.
I will keep saying my opinion, and I hope we all put in more effort to turn things around in a short time. Congratulations to our Super Falcons. Ire o. God bless Nigeria!!!
We are playing Cameroon next then probably SA at the final Olympic qualifier. At this point we need Christy Uchiebe and Halimatu because we will be facing monster players from this point. Even some of the Ethiopian attackers where very skillfull for our players. Congratulations the Coach got his tactics right because Ethiopia is not an easy team to start with as a coach.
I just read that Waldrum was being paid $10,000 monthly and these fools were still owing him months ….Wow now they claimed he abandoned his contract .
Wonderful!
Is that the disgraceful crowd of only 2,000 that came to watch an international football gsme in Abuja? Something is wrong with this shameful country.
Did Stand-in Coach Justin Madugu Do Well Against Ethiopia in 4 nil Romp?
Well, all is well than ends well comes to mind regarding Nigeria’s heart-warming 4:0 mauling of Ethiopia this week as we march to the next round of Olympic qualifiers on 5:1 aggregate scores.
There has been apprehension in certain quarters that stand-in coach Justin Madugu might not be out of his depths for the challenge on hand owing to the disjointed display of the Super Falcons in the first leg. This 4:0 result aside, there were discernible levels of organisation, intent and tactical injection that were evident in how the Super Falcons went about dismantling Ethiopia in Abuja.
In a recent article I wrote on Asisat Oshooala, I had recommended stationing her on the wings where her current repertoire of Super Falcons skills currently resides in my humble opinion. Those saying Oshooala is a spent force for Nigeria are being unreasonable and totally oblivious to areas where she can still be harmful to oppositions.
I wasn’t surprised at all when, through on goal following a glorious through pass by midfield maestro Toni Payne, Oshooala made pigs ear of the glorious chance by trying and failing to round the goalkeeper when other intelligent options abounded; her wastefulness on full display. In the same breath, I wasn’t surprised when she started peppering Ethiopian fullbacks to deliver unbelievably glorious crosses that bore much fruit. Oshooala still possesses pace and power sufficient to wreak havoc from the flanks with darting runs and deadly crosses. But she fluffs far too many glorious chances to be saddled with goal scoring responsibilities. She missed a great header and also connected late or without conviction yesterday. For me, on the flanks she is deadly, as a centre forward, less so.
Magudu’s ladies tried to build from the back severally (either with cute passes or long balls), the cornerstone of several world class teams in modern football these days. It comes with risks and rewards. Our centre back and defensive midfielder lost possession in this process yesterday but were left off the hook by naïve Ethiopian efforts to capitalise – better teams wouldn’t be that generous. The reward came when a long ball from our centre back Demehin made it all the way to Kanu on the left who brutalised her way into the box to pulverize the net and power Nigeria 1:0 ahead in 46 minutes. That training ground routine had worked faultlessly.
Enough credit is also not given by fans to the sheer number of times that the Super Falcons worked their way to crossing or offensive positions in this match.
This can easily be overlooked but, playing a defensive minded team like Ethiopia, casual observers can never appreciate how hard it will be to even get close to the opposition 18 yard box. Yet, even in the first half, I saw debris of crosses flying into Ethiopian 18 yard box with reckless abandonment from all corners. And these were of different varieties: cut backs, low crosses, inswingers, long crosses. It was a crossing smorgasbord.
One of the many delicious crosses/cut backs came from none other than Oshooala who treated 2 Ethiopian markers as mere annoying afterthoughts after breezing through on the right flank to lay it on a plate for Ajibade who didn’t pass up the meal to make it 2:0 in 50 minutes. Another cross from Kanu straight out of a Sony PlayStation computer game in 68 minutes from left wing found Oshoala’s picture-perfect header to put daylight between both sides; 3:0. Who says Oshooala can’t score? (oops, I did!). Another merciless run down the right wing, another ruthless cut back all from Oshoala and another meal gobbled up by Ajibade to wipe the net with a neat finish for Nigeria’s 4th and final goal.
Never had I seen wing play and well executed crosses serve the Super Falcons as did this Madugu tutored side.
In all I thought the Super Falcons came alive towards the end of the first half. They played with authority and intent and their deliveries from the flanks and connections inside the 18 yard box proved productive. Peace Efih breathed life into the defensive midfield department and the philosophy of attacking from the flanks paid off. Toni Payne continues to be a spewing volcano of hot passes and explosive all-round play in offensive midfield. The approach to play out from the back frustrated Ethiopia and starved them of possession. Nigeria’s big guns came to the party in what the performance and scoreline leading to my summation of a “commanding Nigeria display.”
I was thoroughly delighted by the performance and scoreline of my dear Super Falcons; Madugu and his coaching crew and all the players did well.
The NFF should now sort out Nigeria’s coaching issue. If they elect to jettison Waldrum due to persistent bad blood, so be it. Between now and the titanic double-header against Cameroon in the new year, there is ample time to engage a credible gaffer. Justine Madugu did well against Ethiopia, he look like a chip off the old Waldrum-tactical-block. But I harbour doubts as to his suitability for against far more formidable foes.
Too long to read, and the flowery language smacks of trying too hard to impress
Very good review by deo. Well done. And I love the conclusion to sort out the coaching. The admonition by Omo9ja is spot on. The NFF failed with poor coverage. How long must Nigerian football teams continue with the inattention and indeed disrespect?
Finally Chima highlighted couple of names to strengthen the team. Certainly this was not the best set of players available to the country. Plumptre was away for personal reasons, but why no Abiodun? In addition to enhancing the players we need to improve the playing. I watched highlights of South Africa v Congo. Even Congo showed better teamwork than Nigeria. Let the Super Falcons revert to good teamwork. Last team that did that was the winner of Afcon in Cameroun against the host country. Against England Nigeria was promising.
Back to the big question: should Waldrun be retained as coach? The Super Falcons in the WC played as a well coached side. Slightly defensive and teamwork not great. Best performance was against England, but the lack of goals failed us; especially against 10 players. But let’s utilise lessons learnt from the WC and the Olympics qualifiers to date to build a mix of players and playing patterns that will evolve into the most formidable Nigeria female team so far. It’s doable. No excuses.
Potato pitch that the super eagles were forced by caf to abandon (not NFF because those ones are mindlessly brainless and unsavvy) is the same ground you want falcons to display good teamwork? How na? NFF wants falcons to fail for disgracing them at the last world cup but the ladies are defying the odds. I hate glass house and want it stoned any day