Nigeria’s Super Falcons will again trade tackles with South Africa’s Banyana Banyana in the final game of the 2024 Olympics ticket qualifying series today.
The Super Falcons arrived Pretoria yesterday with the mindset of sustaining a record of never having lost to South Africa on their home turf in senior women’s football.
The gap has become much closer since March 19, 1995, when the Super Falcons humiliated the Banyana 7-1 in front of their own fans in Johannesburg in a 1995 FIFA Women’s World Cup qualifying match. Yet, the fact remains that the Banyana are still looking for a first win over the Falcons in any match played in South Africa.
In 24 previous encounters (with seven played in South Africa), Nigeria have won 15, with five ending in draws and South Africa winning on four occasions. One of the drawn games was the final match of the 11th Women Africa Cup of Nations, which Nigeria eventually won 4-3 after a penalty shootout in Accra.
South Africa’s four wins have been in Bata, Equatorial Guinea (1-0, 2012 Women AFCON); Cape Coast, Ghana (1-0, 2018 Women AFCON); Lagos, Nigeria (4-2, Aisha Buhari Cup); and; Rabat, Morocco (2-1, 2022 Women AFCON).
Of the seven previous encounters inside South Africa, Nigeria have won five, drawing two. The only times the Banyana have been able to hold the Falcons in South Africa were on March 12, 2004 (Athens Olympics qualifier, which ended 2-2) and a friendly match on June 3, 2012, that ended 1-1.
The Super Falcons’ delegation for today’s all-important match arrived in Pretoria on Monday morning, and have settled down in their hotel ahead of their official training at the Loftus Versfeld Stadium on Tuesday night.
Tuesday’s match will kick off at 7.30pm South African time (6.30 p.m. Nigerian time).
Nigeria’s last two goals against the Banyana have been scored by captain Rasheedat Ajibade. She got the consolation goal in the 2-1 defeat by the archrivals in Rabat on July 4, 2022, and also converted the penalty that accounted for the win over the visitors in Abuja on Friday evening.
Meanwhile, Nigeria’s U15 boys, nicknamed Future Eagles, have been denied visas by the Spanish embassy.
This was made known by the NFF on its X handle yesterday.
“Players and officials of the Nigeria U15 team, Future Eagles, have been denied visas by the Spanish Embassy and will therefore not be travelling to take part in the UEFA U16 Development Tournament starting on Friday,” it stated.
The team was billed to fly into Spain today for a UEFA U16 Development Tournament to which the African giants have been invited.