‘I believe in my girls’ – Ethiopia’s Firew Hailegebriel not fretting over Nigeria’s pedigree

By Wale Mustapha

Head Coach of Ethiopia women’s national team, Firew Hailegebriel is confident of his girls churning out decent result when they take on Nigeria in the Paris 2024 Olympic qualifiers in Addis Ababa on Wednesday.

The Lucy will host the Super Falcons at the Abebe Bikila Stadium in Addis Ababa in the first leg, second round of the qualifying tournament after they saw off Chad with a 10-0 aggregate win in the first round.

And Hailegebriel admitted that the highprofile and foreign stars in the Super Falcons fold but he insisted that his well motivated girls have all it takes to match the West Africans  for strength and qualities.

“We have been preparing well for the last seven days, we knew they have player from the top league like Barcelona and PSG but football is all about performance,” the former Ethiopia U20 women coach, told Nigeriafootball.ng.

“You can’t win a match because you have only top players, our players are also good the only difference is they didn’t get the chance to play abroad.”

The Ethiopians face an uphill task against the Super Falcons following its back-to-back second round finish at the recent FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.

However, with Hailegebriel acknowledging the threat Nigeria’s individuality poses, it is quite clear his team is aware of the battle ahead.

“I’m sure we will get a good result from tomorrow (on Wednesday)’s game, I believe in my players,” he continued.

“We know that they were good in the Women’s World Cup in Australia but that doesn’t mean they will repeat it tomorrow (on Wednesday).”

Both teams will square up for the second leg of the qualifiers next Tuesday in Abuja, where the eventual winner will qualify for the final round of the qualifiers.