MOLATsportgist

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.

Sweden women’s national team defeated Finland 2-1 to move six points ahead in Group A of Australia/New Zealand 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup Qualifiers.

FC Barcelona forward, Fridolina Rolfö opened the scoring in the 11th minute through Lina Hurtig’s assist. Ria Oling then set up Linda Sallstrom in the 29th minute to restore parity before halftime break.

Lina Hurtig in the 80th minute converted Sweden’s winning goal from Filippa Angeldal’s assist.

The 2020 Olympics runners-up occupy the first position in Group A with a maximum of 12 points from four games ahead of Finland (6 points), Slovakia, Ireland, and Georgia.

Sweden will next face Slovakia on November 31 while Finland take a trip to Slovakia next year.

Russia and Denmark defeated Azerbaijan and Bosnia and Herzegovina respectively.

Denmark in Group E defeated Bosnia and Herzegovina 0-3 to maintain the top position in the group.

Kathrine Kuhl opened the scoring for Denmark almost immediately after kick-off. Lyon player, Signe Bruun doubled the lead in the 14th minute before Emma Snerle made it 0-3 in the 81st minute.

Russia defeated Azerbaijan 0-4 to maintain perfect winning record in the group, thanks to goals from Fedorova, Abdullina, Andreeva and Chernomyrdina.

Denmark with a maximum of 15 points from five games occupy the first position in Group E ahead of Russia on goal difference.

Northern Ireland net eleven to smash record as Rachel Furness ties David Healy’s scoring tally in huge win over North Macedonia.

Rachel Furness has now scored 36 goals for Northern Ireland, the same number as David Healy as Northern Ireland smashed their record margin of victory with an 11-0 win over North Macedonia in Thursday afternoon’s Women’s World Cup qualifier.

It took just four minutes for Northern Ireland to open the flood gate of goals at the Petar Milosevski Training Centre in Skopje, as Furness finished off Demi Vance’s cross from close range for her third goal of the campaign.

• 

Mckenna doubled the lead six minutes later and in the 11th minute Magill then fired home the third before Furness converted the fourth from the spot kick, five minutes later.

She could have had another in the 23rd minute but missed from the penalty kick, before Lauren Wade eventually scored Northern Ireland’s fifth goal in the 26th minute while Kirsty McGuinness and Simone Magill scored another to make it 0-7 before half time break.

Furness’ hat-trick was completed in the 68th minute when she crashed home McGuinness’ cross. Two more goals from Simone Magill, and the other from Rebecca Holloway– who scored her first international goal on a landmark day– completed the rout.

Liverpool forward, Furness wasn’t the only one to net a match ball, her trio bettered by Everton forward Simone Magill’s four goal haul.

However, they were still some way short of the biggest win in Women’s World Cup qualifying. On at least five separate occasions, scorelines of 21-0 have been posted, first by Japan against Guam in 1997, then by Canada against Puerto Rico, New Zealand over Samoa and Austria against American Samoa, all in 1998, before Jordan matched the feat against Kuwait in 2013.

According to reports, Italian side, SS Lazio, have completed the signing of Nigeria midfielder Ogonna Chukwudi for the rest of the 2020/2021 campaign.

The Super Falcons midfielder moved from the Spanish side, Madrid CFF –which she joined in January this year– after passing her medical and putting pen to paper.

The 33-year-old boasts huge experience, having enjoyed a decade long stay in Sweden where she starred for Umea, KIF Orebro, Kristianstads and Djurgardens before joining CSKA then Madrid CFF.

At international level, the former Nasarawa Amazons midfielder played for Nigeria at three Women’s World Cup tournaments in 2007, 2011, and 2019 and also featured twice at the African Women’s Cup of Nations in 2008 and 2012.