The Super Falcons of Nigeria are set to face Egypt in the final group stage match at the ongoing Women’s African Cup of Nations, WAFCON, to battle for the knock-out phase of the competition, and of more importance, an eligibility to feature at the next edition of the FIFA World Cup.
The Nigerian side, having made an lacklustre start following the 3-2 loss to debutants, Malawi, strengthened their bid to qualify for the WAFCON quarter final after a hard-fought win over Zambia in a must win game to ensure qualification, and now face another must-win but winnable encounter against Egypt, which should be enough for them to go through.
With the Confederations of African Football, CAF, stating that team in the semi-final of the continental competition would represent Africa in the global football competition in an automatic qualification, as well as two teams from the last eight, who would have to navigate past a play-off, the match against the north Africans is a must win for the West African side, should they want to qualify without being interested in the result of other group match between Zambia and Malawi.
As CAF had directed a head-to-head qualification pattern, a win for the Super Falcons against Egypt, who are already out of the competition, takes them to six points, enough for their qualification.
A draw might be enough for Nigeria during the match billed for Stade Olympique De Rabat on Wednesday night, should Zambia fail to beat table toppers, Malawi. However, a loss for the Nigeria team would spill off the advantage they have over Zambia. and could even see them finish in the group’s last position. A loss would place the west Africans on three points and a Zambia win or draw placed them below the south Africans.
Nigeria have made it past the group stages at every edition of the competition and made the semi-final of every edition they have featured in and won the title a record 10 times, including the first five, never being runners-up, finished third place once in 2008 and fourth in 2012 and 2022.