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Tijani Babangida tasks Nigeria on Olympic qualifiers after Women’s World Cup ouster
By Oyediji Oluwaseun Babatunde
Former Nigeria’s senior national team winger, Tijani Babangida has advised the women’s national team of the country to forget about their ouster from the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
The Super Falcons exited the tournament after a 4-2 loss on penalties to European champions, England in the Round of 16 on Monday as regulation time ended in a 0-0 draw.
Randy Waldrum’s side didn’t lose any of their four games in regulation time and kept three clean sheets all through for the first time in the country’s history, becoming the first African side to keep three clean sheets at the World Cup.
Nigeria will face Ethiopia in the second round of the Olympic Qualifiers in October and the Nigeria legend believes the nine-time African champions can replicate similar feat and work towards qualifying for the Paris 2024.
“This is not the time for the players to start picking up faults but an opportunity for them to reaccess themselves ahead of the Olympic Games qualifiers,” Babangida told Completesports.com.
“They must forget about the 2023 Women’s World Cup and focus on how they will beat Ethiopia to qualify for the Games. Then they can think of rewriting history for Nigeria.”
The ever-present team at the FIFA Women’s World Cup has not qualified for the last three summer Olympics since their last outing at the Beijing 2008 edition.
The Super Falcons has taken part in three previous Olympics in 2000, 2004, and 2008 with their best result at Athens 2004 where the team reached the quarter-final.
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