By Eniola Olatunji reporting for Patmos Media Line
…90 minutes to beat Egypt or go home…
AFRICAN LADIES football Queens, the Super Falcons of Nigeria are on a very tight rope to their 11th title and another slot to be at the world cup.
Nigeria is meeting the Cleopatras of Egypt in the group C last round match in a duel that has compelled Nigerians to as usual obtain calculators and begin to do permutations on the chances of a team that has appeared in all 14 WAFCON tournaments and won it 10 times producing megastars for Africa.
After two matches played, Malawi the real Scorchers scotched Egypt 3-1 and lowered Nigeria 3-2; Zambia crushed Egypt 6-0 and slumped to Nigeria 0-1 in a gasping match.
That leads the table to some permutations itself. Malawi leads with 6 points scoring 6 goals and conceding 3; Nigeria is 2nd (by official CAF table) with 3 points scoring 3 goals and conceding 3; Zambia is 3rd also with 3 points scoring 6 goals and conceding one (send your question mark to CAF) and Egypt is 4th with no point 1 goal scored and 9 goals conceded.
So, beer parlour arguments started: if Malawi beat Zambia, Nigeria will be 2nd if Nigeria also beat Egypt.
If otherwise, the Three nations of Malawi, Zambia and Nigeria will have 6-points and CAF will use the Head-to-Head rules to pick the two teams that will play quarterfinals from group C.
If the Falcons cannot hear the Falconer and the Falcons slump in battle it will be sad for Nigeria. So many arguments and permutations.
Nigeria and Egypt have no record of previous meetings at senior women’s level even in friendly matches.
Everyone has been looking into the Falcons camp who have stopped their twerking and now focused to avoid shame but two vital players will be missing in the line up namely central defender, Tosin Dimehin who bagged a straight red for hard tackle on Zambian ace player, Barbra as well as Jennifer Echegini as Jenny baby got two yellow cards.
Most fouled player Captain Rasheedat Ajibade who jokingly accused the Zambians at the Free Zone of wanting to kill her on the field of play will be available despite a yellow card for her.
Ajibade fondly called “Mummy G. O.” in world football circles because of her Christian faith must have done the sign of the cross – plus Jesus minus Satan while playing against Zambia.
Three players are good to replace Tosin in the central defence namely Toni Payne Oyinbo wa,
Shukurat Oladipo and Ucheibe who was drafted to move to that position from the midfield and made Barbra a mere frustrated passenger on the field.
Let us look at the performance notes of both teams. Egypt had total 52-20 shots at goal with total 17-13 shots on target meaning they have a better attack than Nigeria though the ball possessions were an average 54.5-53.2% and a better 564-532 passes for Egypt meaning Egypt could easily control the game and that is very dangerous for Nigeria.
Nigeria could tactically oppress Egypt with long passes as they have 123-94 long passes which players like Oshoala or Uchenna Kanu could easily convert into goals Rasheedat Ajibade is dangerous with such accurate long passes, and the Zambia coach knew that by instructing his girls to hack her down.
The 11-9 corner kicks mean Nigeria could force Egypt to make errors. I have a strong feeling Nigeria may have two penalty advantages.
Egyptians play like their body is delicate like plastic and will avoid broken tarsus (legs) from the hard tackles of Nigerian defenders as Nigeria has 5-5 yellow cards with a red.
Nigeria is good at reshuffling players because they have the best bench.
A brilliant 90 minutes of play where Nigeria could beat Egypt silly to restore their 10-star status (the highest rank in military I know is six-star General but Nigerian ladies are 10-star Generals).
Look at their jersey tomorrow.
Nigeria is ranked 36 and have 14 appearances with 10 titles whereas Egypt is ranked 99 are just in their 3rd appearances and never gone beyond group stages in 1998 and 2016.
Group C will be decided simultaneously at 9.00pm tomorrow. Wednesday night star match is Zambia versus debutante killers in Malawi that will attempt to Scorch the goal merchants and then Egypt vs Nigeria.
I say again I don’t predict but desperate Falcons will beat Egypt “wotowoto” with unbelievable goals margin.
They will pump in the goals. The cover photo shows them in training to shoot at sight.
#CAF #WAFCON2026 ##WAFU
#UNAFAC #NFF #EFA.
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