The Super Falcons of Nigeria are in a tough Group of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup to be co-hosted by New Zealand and Australia, scheduled to hold from 20 July to 20 August 2023.
The Nigeria national team are in Group B alongside Australia, Canada and Republic of Ireland.
The Nigeria Super Falcons will have to battle with the co-hosts, Australia, the defending Olympic winners Canada, and the Republic of Ireland in the group stage.
Notably, the 2023 edition is the first to be co-hosted by two countries and the first senior World Cup to be held across multiple confederations, Daily Post reports.
The Super Falcons of Nigeria have previously played the Canadian and Australian women’s national teams at the FIFA World Cup.
The Canadians have been unable to beat Nigeria at the World Cup competition, drawing 3-3 in 1995 and losing 1-0 in 2011.
Nigeria’s face-off with Australia at the FIFA World Cup tournament in 2015 ended in a 2-0 triumph in favour of the Australians.
Meanwhile, this is the first encounter between Ireland and the Super Falcons, with the Europeans playing in the FIFA Women’s World Cup for the first time this year.
So far the Super Falcons have played friendly games against the USWNT, Canadian women’s national team and Nadeshiko of Japan ahead of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
NaijaNews.com reports that in an interview with SuperSports, Desire Oparanozie maintained her belief that the Super Falcons must beat Canada in their opening game, and do well enough to advance from their difficult group to stand a chance of progressing in the tournament.
“Canada is a top team and the good thing is we have played them a couple of times and we know them very well,” she said.
“All the time that we have played against them we’ve had something positive to go home with irrespective of the result. Having them in our group is not bad, it just means we are going to put in more work and devise a means to come out on top this time because the last time we were in the same group with them at a World Cup they came out on top.
“This time we will have to change that and we have the information needed to beat them and we are playing them in our first which is very vital for us if we are going to get to the next round.”
