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Falconets Lose to Mexico, Danjuma says Team Ready for World Cup
Nigeria’s under-20 women football team, the Falconets, on Monday in Bogota lost 0-1 to their Mexican counterparts in a friendly match.
The match played at the Club Banco de la República in the Colombian capital city was the final game in their preparations for the FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup holding there.
Mexico scored the lone goal in the 15th minute, through a volley by Alejandra Lomelí.
The 2010 and 2014 silver medallists had on Friday beaten Australia 2-1 as part of their preparations.
Speaking after Monday’s match, Falconets’ team head coach Christopher Danjuma said the game was their final warm-up before the tournament proper.
“The friendly matches were crucial for the Falconets as they have helped the team fine-tune their strategies and assess their readiness for the tournament.
“We won five of our six qualifying matches with healthy scorelines and have added victory over the Australians, even though we lost to the Mexico team.
“That the team played two international friendly matches and won one and lost one shows the girls are ready and we will work more on our lapses before the competition,” he said.
Danjuma however acknowledged that the FIFA World Cup finals would not be easy.
“ The fact that we are up against Korea Republic and three-time winners Germany in our first two matches means we need to be at our best physically, mentally and psychologically.
“Physically and mentally, I believe we are in shape. Psychologically, we are good also.
“The team left Nigeria to Colombia for two weeks so that we can play quality friendly matches in readiness and we have done that,” he said.
The Report says that Nigeria are with Germany, Venezuela and the Korea Republic in Group D of the tournament scheduled for Saturday to Sept. 22.
Nigeria will start their campaign against Korea Republic on Sept. 2 before taking on Germany two days later on Sept. 4 and Venezuela on Sept. 7.
Spain are the competition’s defending champions after their success at Costa Rica in 2022.(NAN)
Following are the results of Match Day 1 fixtures in the 2024/2025 Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL), played on Sunday and dates of the remaining fixtures:
Akwa United FC 1-1 Abia Warriors FC
Bayelsa United FC 1-1 Kano Pillars FC
Katsina United FC 1-1 Bendel Insurance FC
Niger Tornadoes FC 0-0 Nasarawa United FC
Shooting Stars FC 1-1 Plateau United FC
El Kanemi Warriors Vs Kwara United FC (postponed )
The following Match Day two fixtures
Would be played on Sept.
25:Ikorodu City FC Vs Enugu Rangers international FC
Enyimba international FC Vs Lobi stars FC .
(NAN)
Following are the results of remaining Match Day one fixtures played on Sunday in the 2024/2025 Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL)Heartland FC 1-3 Enyimba international FCKwara United FC 1-2 Niger Tornadoes FCBendel Insurance FC 0-0 Rivers United FCPlateau United FC 1-0 Katsina United FCKano Pillars FC 3-0 Ikorodu City FCSunshine Stars FC 3-0 Bayelsa United FCAbia Warriors FC 0-2 Remo Stars FCNasarawa United FC 1-1 Shooting Stars FC.
(NAN)
The interim coach of the Super Eagles, Augustine Eguavoen, said his team can beat any team with the quality of players in the team.
Eguavoen stated this after his team spanked the Cheetahs of Benin Republic 4-0 in the 2025 African Cup Of Nations (AFCON) at the Godswill Akpabio stadium, Uyo, Akwa Ibom on Saturday.
“We have quality players to beat any team but we respect team anyway.
Any coach can come in and do the same job with the Super Eagles.“It is a mindset, we have the potential and how you perceived your opponent, given the information about them and then go out and do the job,“he said.
Equavoen attributed the victory to the formation adopted by the technical crew, adding that any formation could be used to ensure that the team was successful.
“We can decide to use any system. It is something we discussed and I slept over it. I know with the caliber of players that we have, we can decide to play any formation.
“Football is about you win, lose and draw, I don’t believe we have a poor result,” he said.
He, however, said that the former Super Eagles coach didn’t do a good job but it has to do with believe, what is at stake and what you want to achieve.
“Psychologically as a group, we are agreed, where we are and where we are going to be. We will definitely achieve it,” Equavoen said.
He commended the performance of the defence , describing it as superb, adding that the team had been training together for one week.
The coach said that asking six players to warm up for the second half was to buy time, adding that there was no need to rush to change.
He said the Cheetahs of Benin Republic were a good team, adding that they came with a good game plan.
Report says that Eguavoen was appointed interim coach after the deal between the Nigeria Football Federation(NFF) and coach Bruno Labbadia failed.
NFF explained in a statement that it failed due to the stringent regulations of German tax authorities.(NAN)
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