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Women’s World Cup: ‘Nigeria not intimidated by England threat’ – Randy Waldrum
By Oyediji Oluwaseun Babatunde
Head coach of Nigeria’s senior women’s national team, Randy Waldrum is of the view that his team is ready for their next challenge against European champions, England on Monday.
Super Falcons and the Lionesses will trade tackles in the Round of 16 of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Brisbane, Australia with a sight on a place in the last eight.
The nine-time African champions will face European champions in their second meeting in the competition’s history.
The Lionesses secured a 3-2 win over the Super Falcons at the 1995 tournament which truncated the West Africans side’s chances of making it out of group stage then before breaking the duck with a quarter-final finish in 1999.
After facing two of the top ten ranked teams in the group stage, Wladrum is confident the nine-time African champions can continue their fairytale run at the tournament.
“Obviously, I think a lot of people didn’t believe we could get out of the group. It’s the group of death and the hardest group,” Waldrum told Modzero in Brisbane.
“That showed the class of players and the character with the competitiveness. We had a short period of time to get them ready. I am extremely proud of them for making it out of the group.
“Now that we have made it out of the group, we want to continue. The match against England is definitely going to be a challenge. I think the players are up to it. We are playing the European champions now.
“They are champions for a reason and a good team. We know and respect that. The players understand that. We have played the Olympic champions and two top ten teams in the world. I don’t think they will be intimidated by the moment at all. Now is the time to perform.”
While admitting the abundance of talents in the English team, the University of Pittsburgh coach thinks Nigeria can make use of their strength to outwith England and qualify for the quarter-final.
“England are extremely talented with the likes of Lucy Bronze, Daly on the flanks.” He continued. “The way Lauren James is playing with Alessia Russo. We have to come up with a game plan to ensure that we change the game. We saw how China played. One big difference between us and China is that they don’t have the speed and athleticism.
“They were organised and I think the physicality was too much as England were so powerful. I hope that would be the leveling field of our team against them. We have more strength, power, and speed than China did. We would put a game plan and try to utilise those strengths against England.”
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