BY: OLATOYE OLAWALE
Sonia Ngozi Okobi-Okeoghene, the 28-year old experienced shining light in Nigeria’s midfield said the Super Falcons would not be unsettled by the fanatical support the hosts are sure to receive tonight, when they battle the Atlas Lionesses in one of the Semi-finals of TotalEnergies Women’s Africa Cup of Nations at the Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium, Rabat.
Atlas Lionesses have won all their four games at the continental tournament so far but against the Super Falcons, they face a very experienced team that knows a thing or two about reaching finals.
According to Okobi, She said," We have played against teams playing at home and we know how to manage games like this. We do not care about how many people are in the stadium. We shall come into this game with the sole purpose of winning and going to the final.”
She further said," Nigeria defeated Cameroon 1-0 in the 2016 final in front of over 42,000 fans inside the Ahmadu Ahidjo Stadium and according to her, that experience will come in handy. The Sweden-based midfield genius is hoping to play in her fifth WAFCON final, but Morocco stands in her way achieving that;"
" Coming into the WAFCON, our goal was to qualify for the World Cup and we have done that. Now, we have turned our focus on winning our 10th title and we want to do exactly that. We know that Morocco will have the home crowd behind them but we shall be up for the challenge,” Waldrum said with confidence.
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Nigeria have already tasted defeat in this tournament losing 2-1 in their opener against rivals South Africa and according to the head coach Randy Waldrum, the Super Falcons do not want to feel the way they did two weeks ago.
Nigeria will need to be mindful of Morocco’s dead ball specialty having scored all their seven goals from the spot (three goals) and four off free-kicks in fine fashion with captain Ghizlane Chebbak leading the way in execution including two penalties.
Both sides have only conceded twice in the tournament and boast of the best defensive setups in the tournament with both coaches having their work cut out on how to break down their opponents.
Monday’s clash will be a record 12th time Nigeria will be featuring in the semifinals of the WAFCON and they have won nine times falling short only in 2008 and 2012. The big question is – can Morocco stop the Super Falcons?
The much-anticipated semifinal will take place at the Moulay Abdallah Stadium in Rabat at 2100hrs local time and will be live on SuperSport, BeIN and Arryadia TV in Morocco
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