African champions, the Super Falcons of Nigeria, are billed to return to the country on Wednesday after finishing third at a four-nation invitational tournament in China, according to thenff.com.
The Super Falcons recovered from a 3-0 defeat to host nation China and thrashed Romania 4-1 in Sunday’s third-place match at the Huitang Stadium in Meizhou.
Skipper Rita Chikwelu got a brace, as defender Onome Ebi and forward Ini-Abasi Umotong weighed in with a goal each for a rout after the Romanians had threatened to assert some power by canceling out Chikwelu’s 44th-minute opener.
Officials of the Super Falcons confirmed to thenff.com that the team will immediately start preparations for the Cyprus Women’s Cup, which will hold in Turkey from 25th February to March 7th.
Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary, Italy, North Korea, Mexico, Slovakia, South Africa, and Thailand are the other nations taking part in the Cyprus Women’s Cup.
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After the 12–Nation Invitational Tournament in Cyprus, the Super Falcons will either play Spain or Canada before a final training camp in Austria that could also include two tune-up games.
Nigeria, the only African country to have featured in all previous editions of the FIFA Women’s World Cup since the competition was launched in China in 1991, will tackle host nation France, Korea Republic and Norway in Group A of this summer’s finals.
The Super Falcons will open their account in France against Norway, at the 21,000 –capacity Stade Auguste Delaune in Reims on 8th June, before matches against Korea Republic in Grenoble on 12th June and against hosts France in Rennes on 17th June.
The 8th FIFA Women’s World Cup finals will hold from June 7 to July 7 this year, with France up against Korea Republic in the opening match at the Parc des Princes in Paris on 7th June.
By Johnny Edward
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COMMENTS
Welcome home girls now work on keeping possessions creating chances and finishing them!Vamos
Welcome home girls and more grease to your elbow. And for all those who have castigated them for not beating South Africa black and blue, just yesterday South Africa drew 0-0 with powerhouse Sweden. 4 days ago they narrow lost to Netherland who are the current European champions 2-1, with Netherland just hanging on for last 15 minutes of the match to prevent an equaliser. With this we should put our performance in the AWCON in perspective and give kudos to the girls despite poor preparations. South Africa and Cameroun have not only improved by African levels but also by Global levels. People will witness this at the World Cup. We have accept that going forward playing South Africa, Cameroun & Ghana is always going to be tough and if we are not on our game we will lose these games. We need to set up a development project to produce high standard players to compete in the future or else we would fall behind in Africa
The report is full of errors, omissions and contradictions. How come the Cyprus Cup is taking place in Turkey? How many matches did the Falcons play in China? In a 4-nation tournament each side should play 3 matches,not two.
Bro, it’s definitely and error. The Cyprus cup will be played in Cyprus. It shows CSN do not proof read their write-ups before posting. However, in China each team played 2 matches at the 4-nation tournament as it was a straight knock-out. This is how it went: South Korea 3 Romania 0, China 3 Nigeria 0. Third place – Romania 1 Nigeria 4; Final China 1 South Korea 0. So they were accurate on this.
I think only 3 nations ended up taking part in the China women’s invitational tournament as Nigeria didn’t play South Korea whom I reckon should have been the 4th team – I stand corrected though.
According to thenff.com, the Cyprus women invitational tournament, which is expected to act as a litmus test for the falcons prior to the world cup, is scheduled to be held in Turkey.
However, according to information I came across on the tournament website:cypruswomenscup.net, matches are scheduled to be played in Larnaca, Paralmni and Nicosia – all cities in Cyprus.
So we have to question where the NFF got their information from and why CSN ran with it without being fact-checked.
It must be noted that though Cyprus have been hosting this tournament since inception, they have never participated themselves.
I am looking forward to how the Super Falcons fare against Belgium and Austria, ranked 21 and 23 respectively by FIFA, as this would indicate to me how far they have come as a technically compact unit.
These 2 teams, including Slovakia ranked 45 , are very well organized teams who can only be broken down with the right tactical approach.
Speaking on the effectiveness of such tournaments, I read former Super Falcons coach Ismaila Mabo say on The Guardian that: “If the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) continued organising such friendly matches for (the Super Falcons), they will definitely improve and I believe the sky will be their limit.
I strongly think that the team will do well at the World Cup with more of such tournaments,” he said.
I can’t help but agree with the former Falcons gaffer.
The Falcons are currently rated 39 in the FIFA rankings.
@Deo all four Nations played. China came first, South Korea second, Nigeria third them Romania came forth
According to Wikipedia:
“The 2019 Four Nations Tournament was the 18th edition of the Four Nations Tournament, an invitational women’s football tournament held annually in China.[1][2] The tournament used single-elimination instead of single round-robin system for the first time.”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Four_Nations_Tournament_(women%27s_football)
Deo, 4 nations took part. Just like BigD said. Check my earlier post & see the results of all the games played.
Thanks BigD and Adisboy for your corrections.
I had actually made allowance for this in the first paragraph of my post when I said – I stand corrected though!
Cheers.