Desire Oparanozie has hailed the fighting spirit of the Super Falcons despite losing to hosts Morocco in the semi-final of the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations on Monday.
Despite Rasheedat Ajibade and Halimotu Ayinde receiving their marching orders, the Falcons held their own and dragged the game to penalty shootout after regulation time ended 1-1.
Just three minutes into the second half Ayinde was sent off for a dangerous tackle.
But the Falcons took the lead off an own goal before the equalized.
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Few minutes later Ajibade was sent off for another dangerous tackle.
And in the penalty shootout Ifeoma Onumonu missed her spot kick as the Moroccans won 5-4.
And despite the defeat, Oparanozie praised the team for their doggedness.
“True definition of the naija spirit. You gave and left everything out there on the pitch, against all odds. I couldn’t be more proud of this team.”
The Falcons will take on Zambia on Friday in the third-placed match while the final between Morocco and South Africa comes up on Saturday.
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COMMENTS
WE PLAYED WITH OUT A COACH AND EIGHT PLAYERS BECAUSE THAT NUMBER 9 ONUMONU IS ALSO MINUS ONE
My bro tell me how on earth someone should drop a great striker like Oparanozie for such weak and soft Onumonu. Hope the Nff has seen the consequences of corruption and nepotism in sports
@okponku, Oparanozie was nor allowed out of China because of covid. There is a restriction there and i think another player too in China was also affected, reason Okobi was a late call up and Nogozi really took the chance and she did very well in this competition.
Yes u are right Kim that other player is ihonzie if I spelt her name wrong. She put on the number 19 for the falcons for u 20 captain.
You mean the coach was gonna drop okobi, what substance does he smoke?
the conspirators look over the first half and plan there strategy to disorganise the nigerian rteam.first to reduce the depth of the team by sending off ayinde by intentionally informing there players to put there ankle where ayinde will put her foot when she goes for a loose ball or tackle.when they saw that reducing them to 10 players did not work as planned they went after our star player ajibade by fashioning a red card using camera to monitor only her tackles while ignoring the hard tackles of the morrocan players who made more than two of our players to be taken out for treatment while all through the game no morrocan player was stretched out for injury reasons. Also the VAR team made sure none of the morrocan players tackles was hihgligted upon so that there unfair and bias will not the discovered.At the end 9 women played against 11 ohh What an injustice and day light robbery . on the coach,since there is room for 5 substitute i would have substituted at least 4 fresh players at that time of 1 goals up by nigeria to balance up strength of the team rather the coach left the nos 9 girl who was not contributing mush again even at the tail end of the first half to further compound the problem of the team. And on OPara comment ,her hailing is pure mockery to me .she did not congratulate them when they are winning is now when they lost. womennnn.
For me morroco did not beat them rather they were robbed at gun point but now referee point.on a final note,is now clear to me that VAR is now been used to rob players playing and fans watching. Football is now cabalized for players cant complain else you will be tag indisciplined not fit to play the game.And who wabt loose his source of livelihood just play along.
Anyone that believes that those two reds were unjustified is not up to date on the game and rules. Those are clear red card offences anywhere, any day. The first one was an easier decision because the intent was there. It’s true that Ajibade’s had no intent (not trying to harm the opponent) but it was a reckless, dangerous play due to the excessively force used. Therefore, it’s a red and a correct call. The big question is, WHY is Pinnick’s NFF not petitioning for the game to be forfeited or replayed based on Nigerian players and goalie having laser lights pointed at their eyes, especially during the PK’s? Do you think if the situation was the other way around that Morocco or any other African country will let Nigeria get away with it??
I meant and typed “excessive force” but my not so smart, smart phone changed it to “excessively force”.
oga if you are justifying those two red cards then you have been swindled .pls try and watch the game again.it was a perfect under floodlight robbery. the ref saw some blue murder tackles by the morrocan team and she will flash them yellow card but if she give us yellow cards the VAR team will call her back telling her to change it to red.oga wake up this game as been played before it was played.
We deserve the red card. Those tackles shows we have average intelligent players with profound skills. Rule is rule .it’s clear whether the referee now apply the same treatment to the other team is less important as long as we deserve the red cards. Next time we need to play by the rule.