Tokyo 2020 Olympics CAF qualifiers: Falcons hold first training in Bilda

Harry Awurumibe.

African Champions, Super Falcons of Nigeria this morning held their first full training session in Bilda near Algiers,  the capital city of Algeria ahead of the first leg second round match of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics CAF women’s football qualifier match between Algeria and Nigeria.

The match is billed for Stade Mustapha Tchaker at 7pm local time on Wednesday , August 28, 2019 but the Falcons trained at an artificial grass pitch in a different stadium at another part of Bilda this morning with another training session scheduled at the same place this evening.

With the Nigerian team slated to train only one day inside the match venue, Head Coach Thomas Dennerby does not want to take chances as he opted to put his players through their paces to be able to pick a crack team that will grind out a good result against their Algerians on Wednesday.

According to Dennerby “we (Falcons) trained on artificial grass this morning but will train on the natural grass pitch inside the Stade Mustapha Tchaker tomorrow”.

The Nigerian delegation made up of 18 players, three coaches, handful of backroom staff and Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) officials arrived Bilda late yesterday (Sunday) and could not train because of jetlag.

NFF has scheduled the return match to hold at Agege Stadium, Lagos next Tuesday, September 3.