Desire Oparanozie and Asisat Oshoala attacking partnership excites Randy Waldrum

By Wale Mustapha

Coach Randy Waldrum is elated with strike partnership between Desire Oparanozie and Asisat Oshoala as Super Falcons’ strikers following their roles in Friday’s triumph over Haiti in an international friendly in Turkey.

Both players featured together for the first time since Aisha Buhari Cup in September 2021 in the closing stages of Nigeria’s 2-1 over Haiti on Friday in Antalya, Turkey, with Oshoala and Esther Okoronkwo as the goal scorers.

Oraranozie was making her return to the national team after 14 months of absence and the Wuhan Jiangda forward was able to rekindled her strike partnership with Oshoala when she came in for the closing minutes of the match.

The American tactician, who was pleased with understanding between the two strikers, said their combination has added to options on how the team will set up its attack in subsequent games.

“We had them in the last 20 minutes of the game and you could see the way they played together, it proves that they know each other well, they were a bit unlucky to combine for a goal on two occasions, I enjoyed the chemistry between both of them,” Waldrum told NFF TV.

“It feels so good to have Desire back in the camp, for that reason we’ll see how she’s going to fit in and play with the rest of the players we have upfront, you could see the chemistry she had with Asisat (Oshoala) it was really good,” said the American coach.

Nigeria will be taking on one of the Co-Hosts of the World Cup, New Zealand in another friendly billed for Tuesday in Turkey.