Nigerian legend, Finidi George on Saturday will lead Enyimba out for their first continental engagement of the season.
Enyimba who did not take part in the first preliminary round fixtures will have their hands full against Diambars FC of Senegal.
Coaching for the first time in Africa, Finidi George is expected to use his in-depth knowledge of the continent help Enyimba return to the summit of African Football again having played there for many years.
Meanwhile, Nigeria other representative Bayelsa United will have their hands full when they host CS Sfaxien of Tunisia at the Samson Siasia Stadium, Yenagoa.
Despite playing in Nigeria’s second tier league, Bayelsa United against all odds picked the continental ticket after winning the Aiteo Cup and in the first preliminary round against Ashanti Gold of Guinea annouced their arrival to the continent with a resounding 4-2.
Unlike Ashanti Gold, CS Sfaxien will be a very difficult opponent for the Nigerians but a good result at home on Saturday could help push thier course for next round.
Edo Queens forward, Emem Essien has expressed her hope that her hardwork has started paying off, following her second half Hat-trick against NWFL Championship side, Dannaz Ladies FC on Thursday evening.
The former Ibom Angels forward was a second half substitute in the game against Dannaz Ladies and scored her first of the day on the hour mark, running on to nod in a cross from left back, Rebbeca Ajimuda.
Her second came in the 91st minute, while the third, a beautiful goal, came in at 94th minute of play.
“I have been working hard and am glad it is finally paying off.’ Emem said.
“I am happy for my Hat-trick, it simply means that I have to do more and keep working hard in every game and training session, because I am hungry and want more success in my career.
“My coach have been so supportive and am elated that I could finally repay her trust and believe in me.
‘I am ready and focused to take every chances that comes my way with both hands. I am working hard and am delighted to see that pay off with my goals and even more happier to see my team win.” She concluded.
Edo Queens will face Dannaz Ladies in their last group game on Saturday afternoon at the Area 10 Sports Complex, Abuja.
Honey Badgers young forward Atume Doosur has noted that she is always happy whenever she helps her team win games or help them from getting defeated.
The young forward remarkable scoring form continued on thursday as her fantastic volley gave the Badgers a point against a more experienced side, Royal Queens in the first match of week five of the ongoing Flying Officers Cup.
Doosur scored from a wonderful free-kick on Matchday three against the Ghana Police Ladies to earn her side a point and also did the same against Royal Queens to keep her team in contention.
“I am always happy whenever I get the opportunity to help my team’. Doosur said.
‘It is always a great opportunity for me and we all take the glory as a team, because we all worked for it.
‘We are a very young team with alot of big dreams and we would keep supporting ourselves both on and off the pitch.
“We need to show what we can do at the Flying Officers Cup and am glad that we have gone unbeaten in our last two games.
Honey Badgers will face Naija Ratels in their last game of the group stages on Friday at the Area 10 Sports Complex, Abuja.
UEFA Women’s Champions League holders Barcelona and record seven-time winners Lyon both moved onto six group points, while Arsenal secured a crucial win against Hoffenheim and Bayern München also showed their strength in Thursday’s games.
Little over a year ago, HB Køge had never even played in the top division of Danish women’s football. The Danish champions and European debutants, beaten 5-0 in their opener by Hoffenheim, were impressive against the holders, nearly taking the lead through Kyra Carusa in the first minute and holding their own until half-time.
Group C Standings after match day 2
Barcelona were much improved after the break and, despite missing several chances, took themselves to six points through Fridolina Rolfö’s tap-in in the 62nd minute, her first Women’s Champions League goal for Barça and a last-gasp Jennifer Hermoso penalty.
After losing 4-1 at Barcelona in their opening group game, Arsenal bounced back with a comfortable win over Hoffenheim. Beth Mead was clipped by Michaela Specht in box as the referee pointed to penalty spot, Kim Little stepped forward and converted her Arsenal’s fourth penalty becoming only the ninth woman to reach 40 UEFA club competition goals.
Tobin Heath capped a fine move by the home side with her first goal for the club just before the break, and Vivianne Miedema close range tap-in and Leah Williamson with a powerful header from Katie McCabe’s corner get on the scoresheet after the break to wrap up a comfortable win for Arsenal.
Bayern Munich secured a first Group D win as they inflicted Häcken’s second defeat.
Group D standings after match day 2.
The home side had already hit the post through Lineth Beerensteyn when Lea Schüller took advantage of a defensive mix-up to net an eighth-minute opener, the same player then nodding in Giulia Gwinn’s cross three minutes later. Linda Dallmann also hit the post but got her goal in the second half via a deflected effort, before Jovana Damnjanović lashed home an added-time fourth.
Kadeisha Buchanan opened the scoring in the 29th minute and Van de Donk struck in quick succession before halftime and the next three goals came in a rapid 11-minute burst early in the second period. Melvine Malard scores a superb overhead kick in the second half in a dominant display from Lyon. Catarina Macario get her on the scoresheet before Buchanan get her second. 5-0 it ended in favour of Lyon against Benfica.
Lyon’s Amadine Henry is now joint tenth in the all-time appearance list after making her 70th Champions League appearance last night.
The first game of the day between Royal Queens of Warri and Honey Badgers of Makurdi ended in a 1-1 draw.
Honey Badgers came from behind to pick an important point against Royal Queens on thursday morning, in the first game of the day 5 of the 2021 Flying Officers Cup.
In-form teenager Atume Doosur got one back for her side in the 69th minute, after Ayo Arowokeye had scored for the ‘Canadian geese’ in the in the 54th minute, through a rebound that came from Vera Samuel’s free-kick.
Royal Queens FC with four points from two games occupy the first position in Group A ahead of Honey Badgers FC (2 points), Ghana Police Ladies FC (2 points), and Naija Ratels FC (1 point).
The second game of the day from Group C ended 1-0 in favour of SGH Sports Academy Amazons over WACO Ladies.
Damilola Adebayo in the 59th minute scored the lone goal of the match for the Lagos based side. She outsmarted Best Funmilayo, shooting with her left foot to beat experienced goalkeeper, Abani Osinachi.
Confluence Queens seat at the top of Group C with six points from two games followed by SGH Academy and Sunshine Queens with three points apiece while WACO Ladies are without a point.
In Group D, Edo Queens scaled through Lakeside Queens defensive solidity to secure a 3-0 win with the three goals coming in the second half.
After having majority of ball possession without breakthrough, substitute, Emem Essien headed in a beautiful cross from Rebecca Ajimuda in the 60th minute for the Obaseki Ladies first goal of the game.
Emem Essien scored her second goal of the game in the 91st minute for Coach Wemimo Mathew’s side before completing her hat-trick in the 93rd minute.
Nasarawa Amazons scored two goals in the second half to subdue Danaz Ladies FC 2-0.
Mercy Idoko in the 53rd minute gave the Solid Babes the lead from a very close range.
Substitute, Ayatsea Hembafen doubled Nasarawa Amazons lead before goalkeeper, Chukwu Uchenna saved a penalty for the Amazons in the additional minutes of second half.
Edo Queens with a maximum of six points from two games occupy the first position in Group D while Nasarawa Amazons with three points moved to the second position ahead of Danaz Ladies FC (3 points), and Lakeside Queens (0 point).
The last group matches will hold tomorrow from 8am, with Royal Queens and Ghana Police Ladies playing the first game of the day. Honey Badgers and Naija Ratels will battle it out by 10:30am, while Osun Babes will play their last group games against Bayelsa Queens. Prince Kazeem Eletu and FC Robo Queens will play the last game of the day.
|Thursday Result|
Royal Queens 1 Honey Badgers 1
SGH Academy 1 WACO Ladies 0
Edo Queens 3 Lakeside Queens 0
Dannaz Ladies 0 Nasarawa Amazons 2
| Friday Fixtures | (All at the Area 10 Sports Complex, Abuja).
Juventus Women had the unusual experience of learning what it must be like for most Italian teams to face them on Wednesday night, with the Bianconere up against Chelsea in the Women’s Champions League.
Chelsea took the lead on the half-hour from their first real chance. Erin Cuthbert received the ball on the right, with lots of work still to do. She cut in and darted into the area before slotting the ball low into the bottom corner of the Juventus net.
The lead was short-lived for The Blues with Juventus levelling the scoreline just six minutes later when Lisa Boattin floated a ball into the box and Bonansea expertly converted when under pressure from a Chelsea defender.
The Blues regained the lead in the 68th minute when the ball bobbled around in the Juventus box and Harder struck from 15 yards. Emma Hayes’ side weathered late Juventus pressure to cling onto a 2-1 win and an important three points.
Turin witnessed a record breaking crowd in attendance as 16,871 fans at Juventus Stadium watched live.
The biggest-ever attendance in the Women’s Champions League, before the quarter-finals, and an Italian record in UEFA women’s club football.
Real Madrid vs Breidablik:
Real Madrid welcomed Breidablik at the Alfredo Di Stéfano for their second Champions League game.
The Las Blancas dominated the first half from start to finish, generating a lot of danger in the rival goal. In attack, David Aznar’s team showed a lot of power with Caroline Møller upfront.
The Danish attacker received a good pass from Kenti and, after a brilliant control, put Real Madrid ahead with a great shot in the 6th minute before completing a halftime hat-trick.
Segunda victoria del Real Madrid en la #UWCL. 5-0 al Breidablik para seguir creciendo pese a las bajas. Gran partido de Møller con hat-trick en tan solo 43 minutos. Cuanto más cerca del area, mejor. El duelo ante el PSG decidirá el primer puesto de grupo. pic.twitter.com/dVFgi2u08J
As soon as she stepped onto the pitch, Olga Carmona scored the fourth goal of the game before Lorena closed the win.
PSG vs Kharkov:
Paris Saint-Germain won 5-0 against Kharkov at the Stade Jean Bouin on Wednesday. The players of Didier Ollé-Nicolle mounted pressure on the Ukrainian goals from start to finish.
Jordyn Huitema broke the deadlock in the 25th minute after deceiving Yaman at the near post, with a flat right foot. The Canadian then goes on, and scored twice before the break, following a shot from Bachmann on the bar, then taking back a center behind Diani at close range. Paulina Dudek and substitute Léa Khelifi completed the rout for Paris.
Wolfsburg vs Servette:
Tommy Stroot’s Wolfsburg won 5-0 against Servette FCCF from Geneva on Wednesday evening.
After the guests had properly defended their goal for a quarter of an hour, a blocked Turid-Knaak attempt in the penalty area marked the first warning shot, before Huth immediately followed up with the rebound to score the opener.
Servette has already been able to fend off several VfL corners, but Tabea Waßmuth had another plan scoring twice before the break. Dominique Janssen (51st) and Joelle Smits (68th) completed the demolition in the second half.
Eight years old Cherish Edeh, the daughter of the Founder and President of Ratels Sports Development Foundation (RSDF) gave an inspiring speech on girl-child education during the opening ceremony of the 2021 Flying Officers Cup to mark the international day of girl-child.
Young Cherish started her speech by saluting people at the event and thanked her father Barrister Paul Edeh for granting her the opportunity to speak in respect for his intend love, support and encouragement of girl child.
Despite being just a kid, Cherish have always had passion for the girl-child education. In 2020, she joined her dad and his friends to organize a charity football match, where money was raised for scholarships of over 30 young girls who were out of school because they couldn’t afford to pay their school fees.
“Nigeria accounts for more than one in five out-of-school children anywhere in the world. Although primary education is officially free and compulsory, only 67 percentage of eligible children take up a place in primary school,” she said.
She continued, “It is true that Girls suffer more than boys in terms of missing out on education. In the North-East and North-West for instance, only 41% and 47% respectively of eligible girls get primary education.
“Hence, this has increased the vulnerability of the girl child especially in the northern part of Nigeria.
“Sports at large and football in particular, has been a tool or an escape route for some of these girls to have a good life and build a career for themselves, even with little or no education.
“It is for this reason that my father, in his magnanimity and passion for promoting the course of the girl child, established Ratels Sports Development Foundation (RSDF), which begets Naija Ratels Football Club.”
She added that she has had the opportunity of interacting with the 11-year-old Naija Ratels’ new signing Mirabel, and draw the conclusion that there are many Mirabels’ out there who may not be fortunate to get a scholarship from her father.
“My conversation with her opened my eyes to the hidden potentials innate in alot of young girls on the street who neither have the privilege to go to school nor build a career in sports. We meet them in our everyday life; they are on the streets hawking and doing other menial jobs. Some are even abused and dehumanized daily.
“Like I said earlier, offering young girls an opportunity to build a sporting career is the reason why Ratels Sports Foundation was established. But then, I strongly believe, just as it is in the developed countries, formal education is necessary for every child.
“For this reason, I asked my father to offer Mirabel scholarship up to the university level, which he obliged.”
Every year since 2012, International Day of the Girl is celebrated on Oct. 11 to recognise how hard being a girl can be. The United Nations (UN) created the holiday to celebrate the potential of girls in different cultures around the world, and to highlight the threats, discrimination and issues facing their well-being
The theme of this year’s observance is ‘Ending Child Marriage.’ The UN called for an end to child marriage and stressed that education is a strategic background for protecting girls against this harmful practice and to recognise girls’ rights and highlight the unique challenges girls face worldwide.
Girls worldwide deserve better: better education, better survival rates, better protection from child marriage and sexual assault, better access to resources, better health outcomes and a better future. It’s a very tall order considering some of the challenges ahead but the UN and others are hopeful that Oct. 11 can be a rallying cry with which to empower girls worldwide.
“Education for girls is one of the best strategies for protecting girls against child marriage”, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in his message for the Day. “When they are able to stay in school and avoid being married early, girls can build a foundation for a better life for themselves and their families.”
Putting this into contest, Cherish implores the general public to be more like her father in providing help to the vulnerable girls around them to build a sustainable society for all to thrive.
“I plead with you today (well meaning Nigerians) just like I pleaded with my father, to look out for these other Mirabels’ you might come across and extend a hand of fellowship to them. Early education is very important and we must all unite to make it a staple in the growth and development of every child.
“This way you would have contributed your quota in curbing social vices that could have emanated from having these kids on the streets. Hence making Nigeria safer for all of us.
“Finally, it is pertinent to crave the indulgence of our parents/guardians to allow their girl child or wards pursue career paths of their choice, especially in sports. Yes! Sports!. Football in particular might seem to be masculine –though due to its physicality– and so, many parents (especially the elites) disuade their girls from actively enjoying and participating in the round leather game.
“The reality remains that your children are better off living their dreams. May I also intimate us with the fact that most of the influential women in the world today are sports people. If you doubt me, please google it.” She Concluded.
Making the world better for girls makes the world a better place.
In a detailed press statement released on Wednesday, signed by Ismaila Abubakar, the permanent secretary of the ministry, the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development has denied all allegations claimed by the Nigeria Women’s Basketball team, D’Tigress, said donated money is intact in the CBN account of the NBBF.
The Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development has denied its officials shared money donated to the Men and Women Basketball Teams ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
The Ministry wishes to make the following clarifications:
1. The $230,000 Dollars donated to the Basketball teams by the Banks under the Adopt-a-Team programme of the Ministry is intact in the Nigeria Basketball Federation’s (NBBF) official domiciliary account domiciled with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
2. That only the 12 female Team members of D’Tigress have supplied their foreign account numbers. The Ministry waited for the account numbers of the Male Team to be supplied so that the processing of payments can be one off as requested by the CBN.
3. The Ministry has requested the CBN to commence the processing of the payment to the Female BasketbalI Players immediately. The Male will be paid as soon as their account details are supplied.
4. Ministry wishes to state further that all outstanding -Olympics and Paralympics Games allowances and bonuses are being processed and only slowed down by funds availability.
Furthermore, the Ministry of Finance has been fully furnished with details of the outstanding allowances and payments due to the NBBF and the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and efforts are being made to secure the release.
Former Nigeria Basketball Federation media officer popularly known as ‘Oni Guarantor’ has described the attacks on the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) as politically motivated as posted on his Facebook page.
“It broke my heart to see D’Tigress players embark on a sponsored protest which has continued to go viral. Their action is definitely politically motivated and worse things are to be expected in the coming days.”
“People who were in the team before 2017 would tell you the difference between then and what they enjoyed after. I am all for the improvement of players welfare.”
“But, let us study the crux of the matter.In as much as I am not the Financial Officer of the Federation, it may not be difficult for me to see beyond the smokescreen of the protest.”
“The protest is definitely politically motivated just to rubbish the achievements of the Nigeria Basketball Federation under Musa Kida. The personal agenda behind this movement is what disgusts me the most while the naive players never bothered to source for information.”
“I will not talk down on anybody because we all love to make money. That is why even players hold their respective clubs to ransom for improved pay. The issue of training grants and other related issues surrounding the Olympics is total hogwash.”
“Grants or allowances at such events were handled by the Ministry of Sports and the Nigeria Olympics Committee. All federations are just pedestrians with the above mentioned bodies fully in charge.”
“According to my sources, the players and some banking rules are responsible for the difficulty in the disbursement of the donations from banks to the Men and Women’s teams.The disbursement is not just for the players who participated at the Olympics, but for all the players who took part in the run up to the Olympic Games qualification.”
“The money is not in the account of the NBBF, so the players’ anger is misguided. Can a promise become a debt? Maybe, depending on the side of the divide that you stand.”
“In view of this, let us assume that players and Coaches are “owed” money by the President. The debt owed were based on personal promises in 2018 and 2019 after the World Cup and Afrobasket respectively.”
“So, for the players, it is a debt being owed while to the person (Federation) that promised them, it is not a debt, but a promise. We all have uncles and aunties or helpers who will promise to sort us out but life will eventually happen.”
“They will either forget or have other pressing issues to attend to. Does that give us the right to start reporting to other family members about the promise now turned debt? It will shock you to note that the recent Afrobasket trip was personally sponsored by the President.”
“Funny enough, this is not the first time such is being done to spare the nation of any form of international disgrace. Sarah Ogoke raised the issue of not being brought home after 2019 to either train or celebrate after their Afrobasket win which she found insulting”
“Yes, the players came home in 2017, 2019 before and after their Afrobasket wins and they were well celebrated. But since 2020 when Covid-19 hit the world, everything changed including how people move.”
“So, rather than unduly expose players to unnecessary risks, why not minimize that with a more compact camping arrangement? Mactaben Amachree who is the former General Manager of the team is fighting tooth and nail in conjunction with some political opponents to drag Kida in the mud.”
“She sees the position as her birthright and felt offended that she was sacked. The only mistake was that she was given free hands like others to operate. No wonder she seized the social media handles of the team which she is now using to fight the federation.”
“Haba, this threepeat is becoming a source of worry. It is sad that after the numerous personal sacrifice to make Nigeria look good, he is being rewarded this way just because of politics.”
“Lest we forget, politics will come and go, but the hurts will never. If any party has a reasonable reason to believe that funds were misappropriated, why not file a petition with the agencies empowered to handle this rather than resorting to media trial?”
Ratels Sports Development Foundation led by Barrister Paul Edeh who are the organiser of the Flying Officers Cup pre-season Championship presented two set of Jerseys and six balls each to all participating teams of the 2021 edition.
Following the withdrawal of Rivers Angels and Oasis Ladies from participating at the 2021 edition of the Flying Officers Cup, SGH Academy and Kaduna Queens joined the already registered fourteen teams to complete the sixteen slots for this edition.
All sixteen teams were then given two sets of jersey and six balls as part of the package for the competition. All these were presented by Barrister Paul Edeh.
Also on arrival, NCDC conducted compulsory but free Covid-19 test on all participating teams.
MOLATsportgist 