Sports Revelation Online ..breaking authenic sports reports
By Harry Awurumibe, Africa’s No.1 Women Football Journalist
Celebration Time. …Super Falcons players celebrating one of their goals in a previous match.
Nigeria’s Super Falcons have qualified for the 2024 CAF Women Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) in Morocco after defeating hosts Cape Verde 2-1 at the Estádio Nacional de Cabo Verde in Praia on Tuesday, to chalk up 7-1 on aggregate. It will be the country’s 13th WAFCON qualification in a row.
Two second half goals by Esther Okoronkwo in the 60th minute and stand-in-captain Rasheedat Ajibade in the 90th minute cancelled out the 9th minute goal by Cape Verde’s Ivania Tavares Moreira which had given the hosts high hopes of an upset against the nine-time African champions.
Nigeria secured a convincing 5-0 win over the Cape Verdeans when both teams met in the first leg of the final round qualifier at the Moshood Abiola National Stadium, Abuja on Thursday, November 30, 2024. The country was favourite to claim a second win in six days over the same opposition in the return fixture played in Praia.
However, expectations of another goal rush by Nigeria in the return leg in Praia evaporated like the early morning dews as Cape Verde’s Moreira struck before Super Falcons could settle down for business just as the match looked far from being an easy walk in the park for Nigeria after Cape Verde drew the first blood early in the game.
Champions Return. ..South Africa also qualified for Morocco 2024
Despite creating several goalscoring chances, the Super Falcons failed to level proceedings before the referee’s whistle went off for halftime.
However, Nigeria’s dominance paid off just past the hour-mark when substitute Okoronkwo once again produced a sublime finish to equalise for the Super Falcons just as substitute Rinsola Babajide, midfielder Toni Payne, and Okoronkwo missed several begging chances to give Nigeria the lead.
But Atletico Madrid attacking midfielder Ajibade came up with the winning goal deep in stoppage time to seal Nigeria’s 100 per cent record over Cape Verde.
Meanwhile, following the conclusion of the qualifiers on Tuesday, Nigeria became the latest nation to book their spot at next year’s WAFCON and one of the elite countries that have not failed to qualify for the biennial African women’s football fiesta.
Elsewhere, among the teams that have qualified for 2024 WAFCON aside hosts Morocco and Nigeria are defending champions South Africa,
Algeria which confirmed their tickets after second-round triumphs over Burkina Faso and Burundi, respectively.
Ghana lost 1-0 in Namibia but the Black Queens scraped their way through to the WAFCON, having won the first leg 3-1 last week while Congo DR caused an upset after beating former champions Equatorial Guinea 3-2 on aggregate to advance to the finals.
Tunisia are also through as they forced Congo to a 1-1 draw on Tuesday to make their 5-2 win in the first leg even more significant and also despite beating Tanzania 2-0 at the Stade de Kégué in Lomé, Togo will not be at the WAFCON as they bow out on a 2-3 aggregate defeat.
Zambia followed up their 6-0 win over Angola in the first leg with another 6-0 victory in the return leg to outclass their opponents 12-0 on aggregate.
Senegal also dumped out Egypt from the WAFCON after backing up their 4-0 win last week with a goalless draw in Cairo.