By Alex Tsado
Patience Avre, a former Super Falcons forward, expressed concerns over Nigeria’s prospects in the second leg of their Olympic qualifiers against South Africa after a close victory, according to Saturday PUNCH reports.
The Super Falcons secured a 1-0 win against South Africa in the first leg of the Paris 2024 Olympics final qualification round, held at the MKO Abiola Stadium on Friday.
Avre, who participated in three World Cups and was part of the Falcons team at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Australia, remarked that the result is insufficient to carry to the away leg in South Africa.
“That’s not good enough, it is tight but at least they tried by beating South Africa who are our rivals,” she stated. “It’s still going to be very tough because now, they will be the home team so definitely, there will be a lot of pressure there. The only thing we can do now is to do our best defensively and also in attacking by trying to score an early goal. If we don’t score early, it will make things hard for us because we all know how South African can be.”
Coach Randy Waldrum made several changes to the side that defeated Cameroon in February, with Christy Ucheibe replacing Oluwatosin Demehin at center back, Chidinma Okeke coming in for the unavailable Ashleigh Plumptre at left back, and Uchenna Kanu and Chinwendu Ihezuo handed starts in attack.
Nigeria began the game positively, with Ihezuo attempting the first shot of the game in the 5th minute, albeit drifting wide. Three minutes later, Uchenna Kanu also tested the South African goalkeeper Kaylin Swart, whose save ensured the score remained level.
In the 19th minute, Okeke delivered a cross into the penalty area, but Ihezuo failed to direct her attempt on target, highlighting Nigeria’s need for clinical finishing.
