Ebi confident Falcons would scale through massive test
The FF Minsk player in a telephone chat with Fever Pitch from her Belarus base, added that it’s unfortunate that she couldn’t take part in the encounter due to issues with her club but remains optimistic that things will turn out well given the immense talents in the squad.“No I have been excused, so i […]
The FF Minsk player in a telephone chat with Fever Pitch from her Belarus base, added that it’s unfortunate that she couldn’t take part in the encounter due to issues with her club but remains optimistic that things will turn out well given the immense talents in the squad.
“No I have been excused, so i won’t be taking part but I’m confident that the girls can do it seeing the huge talents we have” the former Belatayir Turkiye defender said.
Falcons will also be without reigning African women player of the year, Asisat Oshoala, for a second time, when they take on the continent’s second best team because of injury sustained while playing for her English club.
The BBC Women’s footballer of the year and Liverpool Ladies forward sustained a knee injury penultimate Saturday during her club’s 1-2 home defeat by Notts County in the Women’s Super League.
Meanwhile, the team which reached Bata, Friday, after catching up with some rest had a light training session at a venue not far from their hotel.
Led by NFF Executive Committee members Ibrahim Gusau and Dilichukwu Onyedinma, the delegation arrived in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea’s administrative capital on Thursday night, and slept there before proceeding to Bata the next morning.
“The Equatorial Guinea FA officials have been behaving funny, but we expected that. They have been trying to frustrate our team,” NFF official Tunde Aderibigbe, who is on the delegation told PM News.
NFF protocol official Barnabas Joro added: “The FA sent only one member of their staff to receive us at the airport in Bata, and since then, we have not seen them.
“We need information on the match coordination meeting, tickets for members of the Nigeria community here and so on. But they are nowhere to be found. Even when we went to the FA office in Bata on Friday afternoon, the place was locked.
“It was through our own efforts and that of the staff of the Embassy of Nigeria, who have remained with us, that we were able to get somewhere for the team to train.”
It will be recalled that Nigeria struggled to a 1-1 home draw with the Nzalang Nacional in the match played at the National Stadium’s mainbowl where the Falcons failed to stamp authority and put the match under control which some attributed to the emotional trauma of having to play only a day after the death of the team’s media officer, Miss Gracious Akujobi.