As the Nigeria women’s senior national team prepares for the final round of the 12th AWCON qualifiers against Cote d’Ivoire for a place in Morocco, coach Randy Waldrum believes his side have to improve in performances.
The nine-time African Champions reached the final qualifying round after edging Ghana 2-1 on aggregate. The Nigerians were beaten 1-0 in Accra.
“We have to improve on performance but the goal was to advance against Ghana and we got the job done,” he told media.
The team have now taken this winter break as an opportunity to train together. Hence, a 9-day training camp was opened on Monday at the Federal Capital, Abuja. With twenty-nine (29) players in camp, Randy hope the camping will help improve the bond, affinity, and familiarity among the group as well as the curation of tactical and technical methods that would work best for the squad in match situations.
“We have like 14 to 15 players in camp we have been tracking. I need to see how they can help us.” He added.
With Asisat Oshoala ruled out on injury, Chinonyerem Macleans could lead the Falcons upfront, as hinted by the coach.
“I don’t think we had the best team against Ghana but now we have some potentials we never had before and I believe Macleans upfront is going to be very good for us.”
The final round of qualifiers will hold in February next year, with the first leg taking place in Lagos.
The Africa Women’s Cup of Nations, Morocco 2022 will be used to decide Africa’s qualifiers for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
MOLATsportgist 